Counters
Chains of flip-flops that count clock pulses — asynchronous (ripple) or synchronous.
Easy
An -bit counter counts from 0 to . Each flip-flop stage divides the frequency by 2, so counters also act as frequency dividers.
- Ripple counter — each flip-flop clocks the next: simple but outputs change at slightly different times.
- Synchronous counter — all flip-flops share the clock: clean outputs.
- Mod-N counter — resets at N (e.g. mod-10 decade counter, 74HC390).
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