Goodmorning forum!

And thanx for the replies. I have a few comments:

16 bit expanders from nxp or texas might be the way to go. Proven, simple, cheap, and with some ESD protection on chip

Jan absolutly has a point: The µc solution IS more sexy (or fancy) And it might end up as a white elephant; it is more complicated than a handfuld of i2c port expanders.

Erik has a point about choosing a processor with enough pins. But even SiLabs stops at 64 pins: That will give me my 32 inputs and 32 outputs, but I will need at least 2 pins for Tx and Rx, and some additional pins for a lc display.
BTW Erik - the '535 is an Siemens/Infeneon device, obsolete and with external memory. But an okay device from years ago.

This could of course be the aplication for picking a non 8051 - an ARM7 from nxp. They come with almost the pincount you want.
There is however an learningcurve............
Ups - non 8051 µc on 8052.com. I'll go and wash my mouth (med brun sæbe)!

As I said in my original post, I dont want to borther with parallel busses; to much trouble, to much pcb real estate. And if i shall use programming time, i'll prefer the µc solution for the CPLD.

The MAX 7300/7301 look pretty nice, but lack the ESD protection the nxp/ti devices have.

I'll guess i'll have to do some more headscratching.
I'll post my decision, when I've made it.
In the mean time any comments still apreachiated!

Ha' en (fortsat) go' dag

Per