Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
 I have no idea what any of that means. What happened to electronic discussions involving words like "breadboard" and "jumper"? |
Breadboards are awesome for the home tinkerer, and jumpers will always have a place. However, you just can't get a lot of components in through-hole designs anymore, as SMD/Ts are so much cheaper to manufacture and assemble. To get around this, some really smart people discovered that you can lay down solder paste on a board, place the components, and use a toaster oven (or skillet!) for the necessary heat to cure the solder.
To make the placement of the solder paste easier, you can get Mylar stencils from places like
Pololu, and then you just use a squeegee to ensure the proper thickness in the proper places.
BGA CPUs will make it so fewer people change their chips, but I honestly can't remember
ever changing out a CPU without also changing out the motherboard. And if someone can use Google, they can figure out how to desolder the chip and resolder a new one on there. Not as easy as a socket, but it will help a bunch with proper connections of each trace as well as decreased costs.
EDIT:
Good Tutorial