one single stage of a parallel shift register
AKA a flip flop (a shift reg is really just 8 flip flops). But how does having 1/8th of a shift register help. You still can't address it.
would mean clocking out a whole lot of useless information just to turn a digital light on or off.
What else is the processor going to do? Unless there are some serious timing constraints it doesn't matter if you have to clock out 500 bits just to change one of them.
None of the "standard" methods are addressable AFAIK. The only way to get addressing of individual LEDs is to put a processor at each LED or a shift register AND an identity comparator AND a DIP switch or method of setting the address.
So apart from not wanting to shift "useless" data is there any other reason for wanting to address individual LEDs?
Rob