mowcius:
If everything else on teh board is surface mount, what's the advantage of the mpu being DIP? Why would anyone want to switch from the 1284P to the 644P?
We want DIP as you can then simply use the board as a programmer for chips, remove them and stick them somwhere else.
Okay. But, this board is kind of overkill for that. if you use the SMT mpu you can save a lot of room. Another board could be designed with many fewer parts as a programmer. Not that its a big deal.