The A3422xKA Hall-effect, direction-detection sensor is a new generation of special-function integrated sensors that is capable of sensing the direction of rotation of a ring magnet. This transducer provides separate digital outputs that provide information on magnet rotation speed, direction, and magnet pole count. This device eliminates the major manufacturing hurdles encountered in fine-pitch direction-detection applications, namely maintaining accurate mechanical location between the two active Hall elements. Here, the two Hall elements are photolithographically aligned to better than 1 m, as contrasted with 100 m or worse mechanical location tolerance when manufactured discretely. This highly sensitive, temperature-stable, magnetic transducer is ideal for use in digital-encoder systems in the harsh environments of automotive or industrial applications. The A3422xKA is a high-sensitivity device optimized for use with high-density magnets. The A3422xKA monolithic integrated circuit contains two independent Hall-effect bipolar switches whose digital outputs are internally coupled to CMOS logic circuitry that decodes signal speed and direction. Extremely low-drift BiCMOS circuitry is used for the amplifiers to ensure symmetry between the two switches so that signal quadrature can be maintained. An on-chip voltage regulator allows the use of this device from a 4.5 V to 18 V supply. The outputs are standard open-collector outputs. Two operating temperature ranges are provided; suffix `E' is for the automotive and industrial temperature range of -40C to +85C, suffix `L' is for the automotive and military temperature range of -40C to +150C. The 5-pin `KA' SIP package provides a cost-competitive solution to magnetic sensing in harsh environments.