Uploaded September 2011 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Up/down counter
A counter that can change state in either direction, under the control of an up/down selector input, is known as an up/down counter. When the selector is in the up state, the counter increments its value. When the selector is in the down state, the counter decrements the count.
In electronics, counters can be implemented quite easily using register-type circuits such as the flip-flop, and a wide variety of classifications exist:
Asynchronous (ripple) counter -- changing state bits are used as clocks to subsequent state flip-flops
Synchronous counter -- all state bits change under control of a single clock
Decade counter -- counts through ten states per stage
Up/down counter -- counts both up and down, under command of a control input
Ring counter -- formed by a shift register with feedback connection in a ring
Johnson counter -- a twisted ring counter
Cascaded counter
Each is useful for different applications. Usually, counter circuits are digital in nature, and count in natural binary. Many types of counter circuits are available as digital building blocks, for example a number of chips in the 4000 series implement different counters.
Occasionally there are advantages to using a counting sequence other than the natural binary sequence—such as the binary coded decimal counter, a linear feedback shift register counter, or a Gray-code counter.
Counters are useful for digital clocks and timers, and in oven timers, VCR clocks
Asynchronous (ripple) counter
Asynchronous counter created from two JK flip-flops
An asynchronous (ripple) counter is a single JK-type flip-flop, with its J (data) input fed from its own inverted output. This circuit can store one bit, and hence can count from zero to one before it overflows (starts over from 0). This counter will increment once for every clock cycle and takes two clock cycles to overflow, so every cycle it will alternate between a transition from 0 to 1 and a transition from 1 to 0. Notice that this creates a new clock with a 50% duty cycle at exactly half the frequency of the input clock. If this output is then used as the clock signal for a similarly arranged D flip-flop (remembering to invert the output to the input), you will get another 1 bit counter that counts half as fast. Putting them together yields a two-bit counter:
Synchronous counter
A 4-bit synchronous counter using JK flip-flops
A simple way of implementing the logic for each bit of an ascending counter (which is what is depicted in the image to the right) is for each bit to toggle when all of the less significant bits are at a logic high state. For example, bit 1 toggles when bit 0 is logic high; bit 2 toggles when both bit 1 and bit 0 are logic high; bit 3 toggles when bit 2, bit 1 and bit 0 are all high; and so on.
Synchronous counters can also be implemented with hardware finite state machines, which are more complex but allow for smoother, more stable transitions.
Hardware-based counters are of this type.
Decade counter
A decade counter is one that counts in decimal digits, rather than binary. A decade counter may have each digit binary encoded (that is, it may count in binary-coded decimal, as the 7490 integrated circuit did) or other binary encodings (such as the bi-quinary encoding of the 7490 integrated circuit). Alternatively, it may have a "fully decoded" or one-hot output code in which each output goes high in turn (the 4017 is such a circuit). The latter type of circuit finds applications in multiplexers and demultiplexers, or wherever a scanning type of behavior is useful. Similar counters with different numbers of outputs are also common.
The decade counter is also known as a mod-counter when it counts to ten (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). A Mod Counter that counts to 64 stops at 63 because 0 counts as a valid digit.
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: "Lifi Communication by Arduino UNO Download Project"
youtube.com/watch?v=c4gC8dbaiZg
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Up/down counter
A counter that can change state in either direction, under the control of an up/down selector input, is known as an up/down counter. When the selector is in the up state, the counter increments its value. When the selector is in the down state, the counter decrements the count.
In electronics, counters can be implemented quite easily using register-type circuits such as the flip-flop, and a wide variety of classifications exist:
Asynchronous (ripple) counter -- changing state bits are used as clocks to subsequent state flip-flops
Synchronous counter -- all state bits change under control of a single clock
Decade counter -- counts through ten states per stage
Up/down counter -- counts both up and down, under command of a control input
Ring counter -- formed by a shift register with feedback connection in a ring
Johnson counter -- a twisted ring counter
Cascaded counter
Each is useful for different applications. Usually, counter circuits are digital in nature, and count in natural binary. Many types of counter circuits are available as digital building blocks, for example a number of chips in the 4000 series implement different counters.
Occasionally there are advantages to using a counting sequence other than the natural binary sequence—such as the binary coded decimal counter, a linear feedback shift register counter, or a Gray-code counter.
Counters are useful for digital clocks and timers, and in oven timers, VCR clocks
Asynchronous (ripple) counter
Asynchronous counter created from two JK flip-flops
An asynchronous (ripple) counter is a single JK-type flip-flop, with its J (data) input fed from its own inverted output. This circuit can store one bit, and hence can count from zero to one before it overflows (starts over from 0). This counter will increment once for every clock cycle and takes two clock cycles to overflow, so every cycle it will alternate between a transition from 0 to 1 and a transition from 1 to 0. Notice that this creates a new clock with a 50% duty cycle at exactly half the frequency of the input clock. If this output is then used as the clock signal for a similarly arranged D flip-flop (remembering to invert the output to the input), you will get another 1 bit counter that counts half as fast. Putting them together yields a two-bit counter:
Synchronous counter
A 4-bit synchronous counter using JK flip-flops
A simple way of implementing the logic for each bit of an ascending counter (which is what is depicted in the image to the right) is for each bit to toggle when all of the less significant bits are at a logic high state. For example, bit 1 toggles when bit 0 is logic high; bit 2 toggles when both bit 1 and bit 0 are logic high; bit 3 toggles when bit 2, bit 1 and bit 0 are all high; and so on.
Synchronous counters can also be implemented with hardware finite state machines, which are more complex but allow for smoother, more stable transitions.
Hardware-based counters are of this type.
Decade counter
A decade counter is one that counts in decimal digits, rather than binary. A decade counter may have each digit binary encoded (that is, it may count in binary-coded decimal, as the 7490 integrated circuit did) or other binary encodings (such as the bi-quinary encoding of the 7490 integrated circuit). Alternatively, it may have a "fully decoded" or one-hot output code in which each output goes high in turn (the 4017 is such a circuit). The latter type of circuit finds applications in multiplexers and demultiplexers, or wherever a scanning type of behavior is useful. Similar counters with different numbers of outputs are also common.
The decade counter is also known as a mod-counter when it counts to ten (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). A Mod Counter that counts to 64 stops at 63 because 0 counts as a valid digit.
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: "Lifi Communication by Arduino UNO Download Project"
youtube.com/watch?v=c4gC8dbaiZg
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
