Have you looked at the likes of this Philips part...P89C51RB2HBA/00 ?? Here is the web data page. You will note this part is available in a PLCC-44 package which is very standard. When used with a socket such as shown on the left side of this picture:



...it is very easy to achieve a through hole implementation on perf board with holes on 2.54 mm centers.

As such you can easily build prototypes without having to resort to surface mount techniques.

Michael Karas