john1993:
its true that a 14pin dip CHIP is bigger than a 32pin qfp CHIP but to imagine a 14pin dip BOARD would be bigger than a promini is ridiculous. specially considering the pin duplication, unnecessary parts, and wasted space from the sparkfun moron designer of promini. bringing out 14 pins to headers would end up much smaller than promini even with the single cap, crystal, and led circuit required. it looks like somebody has never bothered to actually measure either device or even glanced at the mechanicals.bringing out 14 pins will always take a fraction that of bringing out 28 regardless of chip package all else equal.
Take a look at the picture I posted...
Even if you take the Tiny84's 14 pins directly to the edge of the PCB you still can't make a PCB which is exactly 7 holes long. You need to make it longer for the other components + connectors.
(OK, I guess you could make it double sided and put stuff on the back...but that would make it twice as thick - not good)