LEDs are the lighting workhorse of cell phones, MP3 players and diagnostic lights in telecom systems. Their uses are many, from utilitarian backlighting to eye-catching aesthetic effects such as slowly pulsing multicolor indicators. As device designers strive to differentiate their products on the shelf, the number and complexity of lighting effects grows. It would seem that each new effect requires signifi cant additional hardware, and/or complex software, right? Actually, no, there is a way to apply these effects to a number of LEDs with only a single driver IC. The LTC®3219 9-output universal LED (ULED) driver can be programmed to individually gradate, blink or turn on nine individual LEDs using internal logic and circuitry to drive nine 6-bit DAC-controlled LED current sources. Because the gradation and blinking features are controlled internally, effects can be realized without adding ICs, extensively tying up the I2C bus or fi lling valuable memory space with complex programming subroutines. Any feature on any 0mA to 28mA output can be confi gured to activate via the external enable (ENU) pin or I2C interface.