In a ring counter, the information is shifted at each clock signal Clk by one position or flip-flop. Once the information reaches the last flip-flop, at the next clock signal it is pushed back to the first flip-flop...
Circuit diagram ring counter. |
Illustration states of the ring counter. |
Take a look at the circuit diagram. The shown ring counter consists of four D flip-flops. With Reset you set the counter to (1000). Thereafter, the ring counter at each clock signal passes through four states (mod-4 counter)...
Circuit ring counter. (Enlarge) |
Ring counters are flexible and easy to build. They are often used as frequency dividers (more on this later...).
In the next experiment you look at yet another type of ring counter...
