> I've wondered if there was any particular reason surface mount wasn't popular sooner. Soldering, mostly, if I remember correctly. Discrete components (SMD r

> I've wondered if there was any particular reason surface mount wasn't popular sooner. Soldering, mostly, if I remember correctly. Discrete components (SMD resistors, capaictors, inductors) really liked to tombstone. Process control was difficult and expensive. Solder wasn't levelled (look at the picture--the solder covers the copper traces) and we didn't have things like ENIG. This was 1972. Computer-based process control was being invented by these folks. SMT didn't really get going until the mid-1980s.