One of you's guys wrote:
>If you're designing with PICS,  your board has to cost less than a
>meal at McDonald's

In my case, less than a Big Mac.  Some of our boards cost less than
$1.00 US.    A penny is one percent of the cost of these boards.
We are still designing through hole components on single sided copper
because it's the dirt cheapest system.  Or is it?

I've been examining the break even point between surface mount and
through hole parts.  We've been hanging onto through hole because,
till now, through hole resistors and other commodity parts have been
cheaper.  I think the break even point has about arrived, though.

Even in a surface mount design I'll be using some through hole
components - power resistors, relays, aluminum electrolytics,
vertical pots, etc.

One of the arguments against surface mount goes like this:  Surface
mount layouts require at least a double sided board.  Laying out
surface mount on a single sided board is a fool's errand because it
is difficult to jump across traces using a resistor.  You need that
second layer of copper in order to get the thing to route.  Two layer
boards are more expensive than single layer boards, ERGO surface
mount would have to be WAY cheaper than through hole to really be
cheaper.

So my question is this:  What to you folks think - is surface mount
cheaper than through hole?  Does surface mount require a two sided
board in order to route?


-- Lawrence Lile