i just had to repair a stern white star board with an intermittent sound fault, the fix was 1 SMD chip bought from stern via amd. the cost of 1 chip was $120
if i had got mt fault finding wrong i would have been out of pocket $120.
give me a through hole board with eproms any day over an smd board with smd dedicated I.C.s
even intermittent faults on the SAM cpu board are a nightmare
so what happens when stern decide they are no longer going to sell the I.C's for the whitestar boards or they become unavailable
there is one regulator on the white star board that doesn't even have a stern part number according to the manual and i cant find a replacement anywhere (yet)
 

The PAL / GAL chips on the whitestar boards have Stern part number label on them and the corresponding part number on the schematics. Yet of you try to order this part from Stern - they have no idea what you are talking about. Even photos of the board and emails to the USA - Nothing. In the end, I replaced the entire board for over $600.

All because Stern's R&D didn't learn that the batteries should be mounted OFF the $600 board and in a $5 battery holder screwed into the side of the headbox.

SMD technology = Board replacement = puts techs out of business as customers can easily swap over boards.