I do not dispute htat. My main comment was to the
poster who suggested
 an ARM-based microocntroller (I have never seen seen such a device in
 a DIL package) 
 No, but there's at least one in a PLCC package, sockets for which  
 
 Do you haappen to have the part number for that? And know of a supplier
 that sells 1-off qunanitites. When I looked at the commpon suppliers in
 the UK< I couldn't find any prototypiong-friemndly ARMs :-)