[mschuster91]

Could this project, in theory, be done with a 2-layer (front and back) board? I'm thinking of building a small SoC board... but I don't want to shell out hundreds of bucks (and days of shipping time) for prototype PCBs, but hand-etch them instead.

[kersny]

Its been done, but AFAIK not with hand etching: http://hforsten.com/making-embedded-linux-computer.html

I don't think you can do high frequency RAM lines with hand etched boards or BGA escape routing without vias, but two layer prototype boards are pretty cheap these days.