I don't have an Uno, but I was thinking of getting one and by the looks of it, you can remove the AVR microcontroller from the Arduino, right? It's just a DIP IC in a socket that can be pulled out, it seems like.
Uno http://egyrobots.com/image/cache/data/arduino-uno-500×500.jpg
So can you just load a program, remove the AVR chip, throw in another one, and load another program? Then you can have a permanent microcontroller solution for all your projects.
Is this possible?
Best Answer
Yes, the Arduino can be used as an AVR programmer. But, no, you can't just plug the new chip in.
The AVR microcontroller in the Arduino contains the Arduino bootloader. This bootloader can only update the sketch code.
In order to use a brand new AVR with your Arduino, you'll need to copy the Arduino bootloader to it using an AVR In-System-Programmer (ISP).
Fortunately, the Arduino Uno can be used as an AVR ISP.
http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoISP