Exactly, PIC's has a reduced instruction set than lets say 8051 uP or Pentium 4. P4 has grapix and mouse instructions too in ASM. As you said because of less registers and processing power.
ATMELS ATMEGA8 has a good set and they are kinda precise than PIC as they solve 1 instruction per clock cycle. PIC does one instruction in 4 clocks. Moreover, I have read a firmware for a new ATMEL uC which also has a USB function, which is pretty ok (not THAT tough). (NOTE: some new PIC also has USB).
We might (most probly?) be using a PIC or ATMEL uC with the ACER. Right? and yeaaa, ASM isnt very very different, we can know all the functions by reading their datasheets
