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In the same way that gates are the building blocks of
combinatorial circuits, latches and flip-flops
are the building blocks of sequential circuits.
While gates had to be built directly from transistors, latches
can be built from gates, and flip-flops can be built from latches.
This fact will make it somewhat easier to understand latches and
flip-flops.
Both latches and flip-flops are circuit elements whose output
depends not only on the current inputs, but also on previous inputs
and outputs. The difference between a latch and a flip-flop is that
a latch does not have a clock signal, whereas a flip-flop
always does.
How can we make a circuit out of gates that is not combinatorial?
The answer is feed-back, which means that we create
loops in the circuit diagrams so that output values depend,
indirectly, on themselves. If such feed-back is positive
then the circuit tends to have stable states, and if it is
negative the circuit will tend to oscillate.
A latch has positive feedback. Here is an example of a simple
latch:
This latch is called SR-latch, which stands for set
and reset.
It is not practical to use the methods that we have used to
describe combinatorial circuits to describe the behavior of the
SR-latch. Later, we will show a method for describing flip-flops and
clocked sequential circuits. For now, we just rely on our intuition
to describe how latches work.
The SR-latch is meant to have at most one of its inputs equal to
1 at any time. When both of its inputs are 0
it has two different stable states possible. Either x
is 0, in which case we have the following signal
values:
or else x is 1, in which case we have
the following signal values:
The actual value depends on the history of input values
as we will show next.
Now suppose that s is 1 (and therefore
r is 0 since we allow at most one input to
be 1 at any time). We get the following signal values:
The 1 on the s input makes sure the
output of the upper nor-gate is 0, and the two
0s on the input of the lower nor-gate make
sure the x output is 1.
Now suppose the s input goes from 1 to
0, while the r input remains at 0.
The second input of the upper nor-gate is 1,
so the transition from 1 to 0 of the
s input, does not make any difference. The x
output remains at 1. In this case, if the s
and r inputs are both 0, there is only one
possible stable state, the one that gives x the value
1.
Conversely, suppose that r is 1 (and
therefore s is 0 since we allow at most
one input to be 1 at any time). We get the following
signal values:
The 1 on the r input makes sure the
x output is 0, and the two 0s
on the input of the upper nor-gate make sure the output of
the upper nor-gate is 0.
Now suppose the r input goes from 1 to
0, while the s input remains at 0.
The second input of the lower nor-gate is 1,
so the transition from 1 to 0 of the
r input, does not make any difference. The output of the
upper nor-gate remains at 1. In this case, if
the s and r inputs are both 0,
there is only one possible stable state, the one that gives x
the value 0.
From the discussion above, we conclude that the SR-latch is able
to remember the last state of the inputs, in the sense that it
remembers which of the two inputs, s or r,
last had the value of 1.
When we need to draw an SR-latch, we use the following symbol:
Latches are asynchronous, which means that the output
changes very soon after the input changes. Most computers today, on
the other hand, are synchronous, which means that the
outputs of all the sequential circuits change simultaneously to the
rhythm of a global clock signal.
A flip-flop is a synchronous version of the latch. To
complicate the situation even more, there are several fundamental
types of flip-flops. Here, we shall only consider a type called
master-slave flip-flop.
In addition to the fundamental types of flip-flops, there are
minor variations depending on the number of inputs and how they
control the state of the flip-flop. Here, we shall only consider a
very simple type of flip-flop called a D-flip-flop. A
master-slave D-flip-flop is built from two SR-latches and some
gates. Here is the circuit diagram:
The leftmost SR-latch is called the master and the
rightmost is called the slave.
Let us first consider what happens when the clock signal is
1. In this case, the two and-gates in front of the
input of the master are open, i.e., they let the value of
the D-input through to the s input of the
master, and the inverse of the D input to the r
input of the master. Thus, the value of the D input
will go straight trough the master to the x output of
the master. But the two and-gates of the slave re
closed, i.e., their outputs are always 0, so the
slave keeps its old value.
When instead the clock signal is 0, the reverse is
true, i.e., the and-gates at the input of the master are
closed, whereas the ones at the input of the slave are
open. In this case, the flip-flop is completely insensitive to
changes in input.
Now, let us consider what happens when the clock goes from
1 to 0. For this to work, we have to assume that
the input remains the same during a brief period from right before
to right after the clock signal changes. The first thing that
happens is that the and-gates at the input of the master
turn off, i.e., they become insensitive to further changes
in input. The value of the x output of the master is
now the value of the D input right before the clock
started changing. A brief moment later, the clock signal transition
has traversed the inverter and reaches the and-gates
of the slave. These gates open, allowing the x
output of the master to be propagated to the x value of
the slave. The x value of the slave, and therefore that
of the entire flip-flop now contains the value of the D
input right before the clock started changing. We can say that
the clock transition copied the input to the output of the
flip-flop. But at no point in time is there a direct path from input
to output. The output changes only as a result of clock transitions
from 1 to 0.
Finally, let us see what happens when the clock goes from 0
to 1. First, the and-gates of the master open,
letting the value of the D input into the master. By
the time the D value reaches the master, the clock
signal transition reaches the and-gates of the slave, and
turns them off before the possibly modified output of the master
reaches the slave. Thus, the slave keeps its old value. From the
outside, nothing seems to happen, since the output does not change.
From now on, however, the master is open to changes in the input.
Here is the symbol we use for D-flip-flops:
The little triangle for the clock input indicates that this input
is sensitive only to transitions as opposed to levels
as described in the previous paragraph. Sometimes we do not draw the
clock input at all when it is understood that it is there. Clock
signals are boring since they are all just connected to each other.
There is therefore little use to draw them all, and thereby clutter
the diagram unnecessarily.
We have shown how to build a D-flip-flop. It copies its
input to its output as a result of a clock signal
transition from 1 to 0. The value copied
is the value the input has immediately before the clock
transition. Most of the clock period, the D-flip-flop is
insensitive to changes in the input.
We shall use this key characteristic of the D-flip-flop to build
synchronous sequential circuits. |
