Hi Raja,

Yes, this will increase the component count but the
circuit was designed to save port pins. It only uses
seven pins (3 for 74LS138 and 4 FOR 74LS47) to drive
eight digits. You can easily increase it to sixteen
digits by replacing the 74LS138 with a 74LS154.

The 74LS244 can sink 20 milli amps and source-15 milli
amps. There are seven current hogs in one seven segment
LED and each one will pull 15 milli amps each. That's 7
* 15 = 105 milli amps of current per each digit. This
means the 74LS244 isn't going to cut it for driving
LED's.

You are going to have to use something that can handle
100 milli amps comfortably which means a transistor.


A good web site I found that shows you how to interface
a 8051 to a seven segment led can be seen at this
address.
http://www.cs.ucr.edu/content/e...unter.html

Regards,

Charles Bannister