Abstract: An IC for use in an IC apparatus for providing a timed drive of a display matrix, the display matrix displaying a multi-place text composed of at least one of letters, figures and other characters, and the display matrix having more columns than lines in order to display at least 1-line text. A plurality of identically structured ICs form a chain of such ICs that supply column signals for controlling the columns of the display matrix. Each IC has at least a shift register, a character generator and or read-only memory. The shift register into which bits are shifted which correspond to at least a section of text to be displayed on the display matrix has an input and an output operatively connected to an input pin and an output pin, respectively, of the IC.