Not really an 8052 question necessarily, but I'm wondering what options are available for expanding the I/O ports on a small pinned microcontroller. I'm rather new to embedded development.

All the examples I see use the 8255, but isn't there a cheaper solution? Possibly built from logic or something?

Looking for ideas as adding an extra 8255 is out of the question for my project..

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and experience you can share

James