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EE 208 – Logic Design
Chapter 6
Registers and Counters
Sohaib Majzoub
Latches, Flip-flops and Registers
• A latch is an asynchronous memory device.
• Two kind of latches: SR-Latch and D-Latch.
• SR-Latch, Set/Reset Latch, 11 is an illegal
state:
• D-Latch, Data Latch, eliminates the 11 state
but reduces
the number
of inputs to one
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Latches, Flip-flops and Registers
• A Flip-flop is a synchronous device with clock
input.
• It combines two latches (whether SR or D)
together using different configurations
• Four kinds of flip-flops: SR, D, JK, and T.
• SR: has some problems such as 00 and 11
cases, and pulse triggered and not edge
triggered.
• SR stores last even while clock is high, in
case of more than one event it records the
last event.
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Latches, Flip-flops and Registers
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• DFF: eliminate the 00 and 11 cases, and uses
edge triggered clock, a better event triggering
method.
• DFF has one data input, might be limited for a
certain applications.
• Master-Slave JK: uses SR as base flop,
eliminating 00 and 11 cases but still plus
triggered.
• Edge Triggered JK: uses DFF as base flop,
eliminating the 00 and 11 cases and uses
edge triggered.
Latches, Flip-flops and Registers
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• JK, both Master/Slave and Edge Triggered,
implements additional toggle state when both
inputs are 1.
• T flip-flop, toggle flip-flop: uses DFF (QN used
as a feedback to the input of DFF), or uses
edge triggered JK with a fixed logic one at
both inputs.
Latches, Flip-flops and Registers
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• A register is a group of flip-flops along with
control gates for holding binary information.
• Each flip-flop can hold a one bit of
information.
• An n-bit binary information requires an n
number of flip-flops.
• The control gates used to control the read and
writing operation to the flip-flops.
DFF as Storing Device
• The simplest form of registers
is a group of flip-flops with no
external/control gates.
• At the rise of each clock signal
a new binary information is
stored in the flip-flops.
• May need to gate the clock (
and the input) if need to keep
the same stored value over
more than one cycle.
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Registers (using DFF)
• DFF has one input =>
limitation, requires a
feedback to implement load
signal.
• Adding an enable (or load)
control to a DFF uses the
feedback signal to reload Q.
• When EN line is at logic 0
=> previous output is load
again at the input.
• When EN line is at logic 1
=> a new input is stored in
the Register
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Registers (using SR)
• Using SR flip-flop might
give a better control to
keep the same stored
data for more than one
cycle.
• The data will be loaded
into the register only if
the load signal is
activated.
• Pulse triggered and not
edge triggered.
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Registers (Using JK)
• Edge Triggered
register need a JK
and cannot be
implemented using
SR.
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Shift Registers
• A shift register is an n-bit register with
capability of shifting its stored data by one bit
position at each clock cycle.
• One of the most important application of shift
registers is: serial-in/parallel-out (serial-toparallel conversion), parallel-in/serial-out
(parallel-to-serial conversion).
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Serial-In Parallel-Out Shift Register
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Parallel-In Serial-Out Shift Register
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Parallel-In Parallel-Out Shift Register
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Serial Addition
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Universal or Bidirectional Shift Register
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• A CLR control to clear the register to zero.
• A CLK input for clock pulses to synchronize all
operations.
• A shift-right control to enable the shift-right operation
and the serial input and output lines associated with
the shift right.
• A shift-left control to enable the shift-left operation
and the serial input and output lines associated with
the shift left.
• A parallel load control to enable a parallel transfer
and the n input lines associated with the parallel
transfer.
• n parallel output lines.
Universal Shift
Register
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Universal Shift Register
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Serial-to-Parallel Conversion
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Serial-to-Parallel Conversion
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Counters
• The name counter is usually used for any
clocked sequential system whose state
diagram contains a single cycle.
• The modulus of the counter is the number of
states in the cycle.
• An m-counter is a modulo m counter
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Ripple Counter
• An n-bit binary counter uses n TFF
that can produce 2n states.
• The counter will start counting
starting from 0 upwards to 2n – 1:
0,1,2,…, 2n – 1, then it will restart to
zero after reaching 2n – 1.
• This counter is called ripple
because the clock ripple from the
least significant bit to the most
significant bit.
• Example: 4-bit ripple counter:
0000,0001,0010,0011,0100,0101,0110,0111,1000,
1001,1010,1011,1100,1101,1110,1111.
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Ripple Counter
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Synchronous Counters
• Ripple counter is very slow counter (clock
ripples through all flops).
• A synchronous counter connects all of its flipflop clock inputs to the same common CLK
signal. (all the flip-flop outputs change at the
same time).
• An enable line should be used, the output
toggles only in EN is 1.
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Synchronous Binary Counter
Serial enabled counter
Start counting when
count EN is 1 (CNTEN=1)
EN0 = CNTEN
EN1 = Q0*CNTEN
EN2 = Q1*EN1
EN3 = Q2*EN2
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Synchronous Binary Counter
• Enable line signals are shifted because of gate delay
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Synchronous Binary Counter
Serial enabled counter
Start counting when
count EN is 1
(CNTEN=1)
EN0 = CNTEN
EN1 = Q0*CNTEN
EN2 = Q1*Q0*CNTEN
EN3 = Q2*Q1*Q0*CNTEN
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