hi,
it seems that more and more boards are using PLCC chips instead of DIP chips. (http://www.ioss.com.tw/web/English/RD1BIOSSavior/SelectionChart.html)
if DIP is used you can replace the onboard bios chip (normally 2mbit) by a 8mbyte (64mbit) (m-systems md-2800-d08 or md-2802-d08) DIP chip. that way you have the possability to put the kernel and a small rootfs directly into the bios chip.
why cannot you do this if your board uses a PLCC chip? are there no PLCC chips with larger memory available? what types of PLCC chips are used? from which companies?