[dcb]

SAA1064 is an interesting looking chip, yah certainly it is possible. $2.50 chip that you can control 32 LEDs with a 2 wire interface has it's applications. I don't like that i2c uses 2 analog pins though. But for the "simple" 7/8 bar Vacuum gauge it is not necessary since the chip can handle that load and has the pins to spare in a standalone unit.

You could also implement a standalone gauge bar graph with a couple LM339,s that is what is used for my cheap electric scooters "dashboard", to indicate battery voltage and throttle, but the atmega is still one chip and is hardly expensive and is infinitely more flexible. Of course there are tons of other microcontroller chips out there too, but arduino is a good starting point.