The MSC1162A is a monolithic IC designed for directly driving the grid and anode of the vacuum fluorescent display tube. The device contains a 40-bit bidirectional shift register, a 40-bit latch circuit, and 40-output circuit on a single chip. Display data is serially stored in the shift register at the rising edge of a clock pulse. Setting the *CL pin low allows all the driver outputs to be driven low, which makes it possible to set the display blanking. Also, setting both of the *CL and CHG pins high allows all the driver outputs to be driven high, which provides the easy testing of all lights after final assembly of a VFD tube panel. The MSC1162A is compatible with the MSC1162.