The MSC1215-01 is a 1/2-duty vacuum fluorescent display tube driver implemented in Bi- CMOS technology. This LSI consists of a 37-bit shift register, 34 latches, an analog dimming circuit, (a PWM conversion circuit), a 3 x 4 keyscan circuit, a 6ch-6-bit A/D converter and 17 segment drivers, and 2-grid pre-drivers.

The MSC1215-01 has capabilities of displaying audio system frequencies and various informa- tions on a VFD tube for the automobile application and also interfacing with keyboard inputs and on an analog volume input.

For automobile audio systems, the front panel functions (such as a frequency display, keyboard input and analog voltage input from a volume) can be accomplished by this IC. The analog dimming/PWM conversion modes can be selected automatically for the brightness control, so this IC is applicable to any type of automobile without any change of the specifica- tions.

The interface with a MCU can be done only with 3 wires (CS, DATA I/O and CLOCK signals). Also, DATA I/O and CLOCK signal lines can be shared with other peripherals because of chip select function by CS signal.