This smaller brother to the SGS Thompson L298 is one of the most common motor driving chips out there. Each IC can handle two motors at nominally 600mA each, with spikes up to 1.2 amps, at a voltage range between 4.5 and 36 volts!

Other features of this chip include back-emf diode protection, and automatic thermal shutdown which automatically throttles current flow back until the chip cools down again..

L293D Datasheet