If there has to be a chip to facilitate coms, I feel like you could go on a similar hunt for 8 pin microcontrollers that could serve that function and maybe al

If there has to be a chip to facilitate coms, I feel like you could go on a similar hunt for 8 pin microcontrollers that could serve that function and maybe also provide some extra functionality. It would be interesting if it could connect to a PC though a DDC connection.