The MSC1208 is a Bi-CMOS display driver for 1/2-duty vacuum fluorescent display tube. It consists of 58-bit shift registers, latch circuits, a 10-bit digital dimming circuit, 4 x 4 switch matrix, and a keyscan circuit for 2-channel, 3-contact rotary switch. With these features, the MSC1208 not only can display frequencies for audio systems used in automobile applications and various information, but also can accept keyboard entry. Thus the front panel functions can be carried out only by this IC. Since the MSC1208 has the data parity check function and the self-check functions, inspection at shipment and failure detection can easily be performed. In addition, since the MSC1208 uses serial interfacing, only two signal lines, DATA ENABLE and DATA I/O, are used for connection with a microcontroller.