I now have six PIC16F18446 chips programmed as dual digit seven segment display controllers.

Beautifully simple approach. There are 7 output pins driving the anodes of the LED's in parallel and the common cathode of each digit returns via a resistor to a dedicated output pin for each digit. 9 output pins in total.

8 input pins provide the pair of nybbles needed for the pair of digits.  

Each digit is turned on 50% of the time and with the microcontroller running with it's internal clock set to 1MHz the digit refresh rate is flicker free at 150Hz. 

I now have to wait for the PCB's to arive in a few days before I can have any more fun.