Seperate IC to Count Pulse Input?

Hi,

Is anyone aware of any IC's that can be used to count the pulse from a hall effect sensor and whose count can be read via serial/i2c? I have found some IC's that provide a 4 bit digital output to represent its count, but i'm worried about losing input pins on the Arduino.

If you've used any in the past, it'd be great to hear of anything!

Cheers,
Scott.