Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Contents:
What are synchronous counters? The dictionary definition... ... and what it "really" means. Why do we need counters? How are counters made? Why "synchronous"? The difference between asynchronous and synchronous counters. Dangers of asynchronous counters. Different types of synchronous counters Binary counter Up/down counter Loadable counter BCD counter Ring counter Johnson counter
T flip-flops are used because set/reset ([1,0] [0,1]) functions are seldom used. Only the "do nothing" and toggle ([0,0] [1,1]) functions are used. Logic gates are used to decide when to toggle which outputs. Below is an example of a synchronous binary counter, implemented using J-K flip-flops and AND gates.
Why "synchronous"?
The difference between asynchronous and synchronous counters.
In an asynchronous counter, an external event is used to directly SET or CLEAR a flip-flop when it occurs. In a synchronous counter however, the external event is used to produce a pulse that is synchronised with the internal clock. An example of an asynchronous counter is a ripple counter. Each flip-flop in the ripple counter is clocked by the output from the previous flipflop. Only the first flip-flop is clocked by an external clock. Below is an example of a 4-bit ripple counter:
Up/down counters.
Instead of just counting up (up counter), counters can be made to count down (down counter) or both up and down (updown counter). The diagram below shows an up-down counter. The counter counts up or down depending on which of the "up"and "down" inputs are high.
Loadable counters.
And instead of counting from 0, a counter can be made to count from a given initial value. This type of counter is called a loadable counter.
BCD counters.
A BCD counter counts in binary-coded decimal from 0000 to 1001 and back to 0000. Because of the return to 0 after a count of 9, a BCD counter does not have a regular pattern as in a straight binary count.
Ring counters.
A ring counter is a circular shift register with only one flip-flop being set at any particular time; all others are cleared. The single bit is shifted from one flip-flop to the other to produce the sequence of timing signals.
Johnson counters.
The Johnson counter, also called the twisted ring counter, is a variation of the ring counter, with the inverse output of the most significant flip-flop passed to the input of the least significant flip-flop. The sequence followed begins with all 0's in the register. The final 0 will cause 1's to be shifted into the register from the left-hand side when clock pulses are applied. When the first 1 reaches the most significant flip-flop, 0's will be inserted into the first flip-flop because of the cross-coupling between the output and the input of the counter.
References:
Digital Logic and Computer Design M. Morris Mano Practical Digital Design Using ICs Joseph D. Greenfield Digital System Design Barry Wilkinson,Rafic Makki Digital Electronics Christopher E. Strangio Counting and Counters R.M.M. Oberman Digital Design M. Morris Mano Electronic Counters
R.M.M. Oberman Supervisor Partner Dr. Wayne Luk (wl@doc.ic.ac.uk) Andrew Long(gsal)
~The End.~