This paper proposes an effective drive of high intensity discharge (HID) lamp ballast for cars. All control functions of the proposed ballast are implemented using a low-cost single chip microcontroller, PIC16C73 to optimize the total system size and to minimize cost through minimization of total component number. The proposed ballast generates high open-circuit voltage to ignite the lamp and is controlled to supply effectively the power required to shorten warm-up period after the breakdown. The DC-DC converter of the DC-AC converter part of the ballast utilizes the flyback converter topology that can minimize component number. Also, because to more minimize the ballast size, the transformer size must be minimized, for this, PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) pulses are generated with high frequency using the PWM module of the microcontroller. An analysis for this is explained, briefly. As if the operation of the lamp and ballast arrives at steady-state, then the ballast must AC-control the lamp, for this, the microcontroller utilizes the other PWM module. And the part related to the igniter is explained, briefly. It is shown through experimental results that the controller of the proposed ballast has good performance for the HID lamp for cars.