I recently soldered a SOIC-16 in my Macintosh SE/30 using a standard chisel tip and drag soldering. I have poor vision so I use a large magnifying lens. Otherwise, it's pretty simple.

One time I have is to NOT tack down a blob of solder before you tack down the corners. I used to think that tacking a small blob of solder on the corner and then holding the part over it while I melt the solder (so that it "falls in") was the way to go. But it creates more trouble, really. Because the part has to be lifted off the board.

Best thing to do (for me, anyway) is just to put the part on and just hold it while you tack the two opposite corners. You don't have to worry about bridging at this point. Then it's just drag soldering.

I've gotten much better at soldering small SMD parts and this has made me want to change gears and possibly make my SBC surface mount. You can save a lot of money by doing that.

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Cat; the other white meat.

Not only can you get some cost reduction from the devices themselves, your PCB ends up being more compact, which makes it less expensive as well. As a bonus, the more compact layout leads to shorter traces, which may make it easier to support higher clock rates. In other words, you are reaping the benefits that were first seen when SMD was introduced in the 1970s.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Going a little crazy with datasheets but I found this if you have $300 lying around:

https://4donline.ihs.com/images/VipMast ... 1525-1.pdf

Such a deal! Only 303.73 USD at Mouser. That's each—not per dozen. :: Cough :: I think I'll pass. For that much money, I can buy 90 pieces of a 512KB SRAM like what I have in POC V2.

Incidentally, all those Maxim battery-backed SRAMs tend to be on the slow side, 70ns in this one's case. That's a long way from the 10ns of the two Cypress SRAMs in POC V2.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!