The DB1 comes in two varieties based on the LED display module installed on the board. The DB1-CLOCK display has four 7-segment characters and one colon. It is perfect for all sorts of time displays. The DB1-NUMERIC display has four 7-segment characters, each with a right-hand decimal point. It is just the thing for instrument readouts. If your application doesn't require a colon or decimal point then either DB1 model should work.
The DB1 is compatible with the Motorola SPI and National MICROWIRE serial interfaces. A software "bit-banging" interface can easily be written for any microcontroller that doesn't have one of these synchronous serial ports.
As shown by the examples at the right the DB1 can display the full range of hexadecimal characters plus many special characters. See the DB1 User's Manual on the Data & Documentation page for full details. Four annunciator LEDs, located near the corners of the LED display, are handy for indicating things like alarms, data ranges, overflows, low battery, etc.
One of our customers used the DB1 for an internet clock. Please let us know about your project!