Renesas is offering a promotion version of their RL78 microcontroller. This offer is only available to their Sample Component account holders, but the process for signing up for a sample account is pretty straightforward. (There may be EAR restrictions with this board.)
If you are looking for a powerful processor that is an alternative to PIC or AVR processors, this board might be worth a look.
[i]Note: It appears samplecomponents.com might have been compromised at some point in the past. Google throws a warning page up. Proceed at your own discretion.[/i]Renesas Promotion Board for RL78/G13 | Renesas Electronics America.