Hi all,

probably i have to destroy some dreams here, but i see no way for a two
layer board. I made several of this, and i always regretted it. One look at
the scope and you know what i mean. In the terms of reliability ... it has
to be 4 layer at least. (POINT)

and as second, anybody looked lately at the available chips around ?
found something that is so big that a hobbyist can solder it at home ?

In my manuals i have only smt stuff, with 0.05" or 0.035 pinning". At least
if this has to be available at the end of the year too. 

Check the prices too. the DIP stuff is in the meantime more expensive than
the SMT.

my .5 cents to this discussion.

Anyway, my design at the moment looks like it would have two versions. 

a.) small.cheap IDE

b.) more expensive with controller and SCSI.

same layout & board but different assembly.

cheers,
emanuel