Embeded Design

So /prog/,
I wanna learn how to do embedded design, interfacing, and programming (sort of like how TI's are made, and old school non-complex computers such as the c64).

Any advice, information, etc. to point me in the right direction? I'd prefer to get input from people who have experience in this area. For example, I have an tiny display that works from a phone. Don't know how to use it, but want to take a cpu (I have a 8086 chip lying around), a ROM, and write the software to put a circle or something on the screen.

>>19
Maybe doing it serially is a bit too much, but manually loading every instruction into a microcontroller using a set of switches is an experience all embedded programmers should have done at least once.

I remember some EE instructors would give their students a serial EEPROM, a copy of the datasheet, a few wires, switches, a battery, and 2 hours for them to erase and write their own name and bits of other info into it. A quick search shows that this is still being done:
http://www.engr.uky.edu/~idea/wiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?id=classes%3A07c%3A599%3Adefault&cache=cache&media=classes:07c:599:lab1.pdf