WHERE'S ALL THE SMALL FOOTPRINT STUFF?

I know I've moaned before, but potentially the best part that Ti built 
was the MSP430F2131. It's problems were simple, no SBW interface, no 
comms. It's plusses were a very small footprint, decent I/O count and 
reasonable memory. As they've added to their portfolio they've 
concentrated on the high end big memory high pin count stuff, or the 
very low pin count, like 16 pin QFN packages, which usually just fall 
short on pin count. Sadly the 2121 and 2131 were orphan parts, an odd 
transition into the 2 series without the SBW. I looked at the 
MSP430G2131 and thought here was the answer to my prayers, but it seems 
to be nothing more than an MSP430F2002 with possibly a slightly better 
Brownout detector, how about uniformity in numbering Ti??

Most of the stuff I design has small physical requirements, like, in the 
past a 0.45" (11.43mm) sq wireless multi-sensor device, a sub 0.25gm 
(.008oz) motion and temp logger, and a 6x8mm (.235 x .315) motion temp 
and light logger with optical comms. All of these used the 2131 or 2121 
because nothing else had the pin count I needed, but in all cases my 
data rates were limited by the need to bit bang comm ports. Once again I 
find myself in that situation, I have a 10mm diameter limit on one 
design and a 5x8mm limit on the other, and this time I need a faster 
comm system. The closest I can get is the MSP430G2432, nothing remotely 
close in FRAM, which would be my preference, and nothing else I can find 
in a 4 x 4 mm  QFN24 package. The other problem I've often encountered 
is the lack of a DAC. In these small designs I don't have space (or 
budget) for an external DAC, and surprisingly need one quite often. For 
this design I've been forced out of the MSP430. For the first time in 14 
years I've been unable to find a part that does what I need 
economically, and am jumping ship to the Microchip PIC16LF1709, a 20 pin 
QFN part with DAC, UART, SPI and plenty of other resources. Yes it's 8 
bit, yes it has that evil PIC architecture, but I was once a huge fan of 
the small PIC's, and don't see this as an insurmountable problem.

Whinge over

Al