I've been reading about PCB stackups, and for four layer boards, there are usually two popular options (bottom to top):
Signal - power - GND - signal
GND - signal/power - signal/power - GND
I've typically used the first one, it seems to be the most popular (and having access to traces is handy for bodging).
The second one, with GND planes shielding the signals makes a lot of sense, since when peppering it with grounded vias you can make a pretty good faraday cage around the inner signal/power layers.
But doesn't the large number of non-GND vias break up these ground planes significantly? You'd need one for just about every pin connection, so it seems that a large amount of the ground plane(s) will be broken up like crazy, at least when you have a dense board (as many do). And these vias travel through all layers, interfering with optimal routing.
Just wondering what people thought of this.