Are Wire Wrap Products Dying Out?

tie_guy_matt asks: "I was in our stockroom at work trying to get connectors so I could reproduce a circuit board that I broke (oops!) I wanted to get a 20-pin connector that I could use on a wirewrap board. The guy in charge of the stockroom said that they no longer make that type of connector for wire wrap boards. Companies are starting to produce more and more surface mount chips and less and less DIP chips. Ever try to solder a sufrace mount chip onto a homemade circiut board? There is only one company left that makes wire wrap stuff: OK Industries. If this company goes under we may no longer be able to make home made Z80 computers from parts we bought from Digikey. Are hobbiest starting to have trouble finding the parts they need? Will very small companies now have to spend a lot more money to make prototypes? Is this yet another example of how big companies are squashing the little guy?"