>I am using a PIC16C84 to drive some 7 segment LED displays.  My problem is
>that the LED's are those BIG (3 inch) ones and each segment needs 40mA.  I
>was going to use a 2803 to drive them but with all 7 segments on, it looks
>like the power was too high.

Scott - are you going to multiplex the displays?  If not, 2803 (or its less
expensive 7 wide brother 2003) will work just fine.  Each channel is good
for a maximum of 500 mA, total package current is ok for 600 mA or so.  Be
sure to take the aprox. 1.2 V saturation voltage when calculating your LED
segment resistors.

PS: I've been talking up TPIC6B595 power o/p shift registers for several
months now.  Each channel is good for 150 mA and all channels can be used at
full current without any concern.  You can drive multiple displays
(non-multiplexed) using only 3 output pins on your pic (2 pins if you use a
RC delay on the clk line to drive the latch pins.  My current project uses 3
seperate 32 bit bidirectional serial chains using only 5 i/o pins.  My
eeprom shares 2 of those lines and takes one more i/o for a total of 6 i/o
pins for ALL of my digital inputs, outputs and configuration storage.

Anyways, hope this helps.

Dwayne