Hi nigel i did look at the microchip site and the comparison charts but i couldnt find a column with usarts as the hader that is why i posted here, i cant be looking in the correct place, i will have another look now.
C'mon man, use your brain. Does it really have to have a column labelled USART? Try it again and scroll to the bottom of the page. Or search the page for "USART". Or use the parametric search screen and select "2 AUSART" or "2 EUSART".
And that is said in the nicest way I can, I have found the chips that have two usarts by the way but i just got so into reading about them that i forgot to come back and let you know
I also thought there was a UART column, i'm sure i've seen one before. Anyway now they seem to be listed in the 'Interface' column, so just do CTRL-F and search the page for '2 EUSART' or '2 AUSART' - seems to be all 18 series from what I can see.
I wanted two USARTs too in a DIP package. I settled for MAX3110e (SPI UART with RS232 level drivers in a DIP package, see Ladybug on my site for schematic) You could combine it with a 16F88 and get your two UARTs.
Use the "Interface" column in the Microchip chart. Click on the down arrow thingy at the top. Scroll down until you see "2 EUSART" or "2 USART". By the way, the first SMALLEST in this category (with 2 EUSARTs), per your request, is at this data sheet:
**broken link removed**
which is the PIC18F67J10, a 64 TQFP (Thin Quad Flat Pack).
I still say to look at the dsPICs in 28 DIP and 40 DIP packages. They are no more difficult to code for then regular 8-bit PICs and can really open up a number of project possibilities due to their superior processing power and integrated peripherals.