Wagner wrote:

> If you know some other manufacturer similar chip, email me or post here,
> I think more people are interested.

The MAXIM MAX7219 works very well and only needs one resistor to select the
maximum segment drive current.  Drives any combination of up to 8 digits or
discrete LED matrices.  Requires 3 I/O - clock, serial data & chip select
but the clock and chip select can be multiplexed with other I/O. Brightness,
number of digits, decoding etc. etc. are all under digital control.  Serial
register also has an output to allow devices to be chained.

Dave