need some explanation,difference between shift registers and counters

[farid82xxx]

Hi Folks,

I appreciate if some one give me some explanation about difference between shift registers and counters.

thanks in advance

 

[barry]

Both shift registers and counters are made of flip-flops. A shift register is simply a chain of FFs where the Q output of one FF connects to the D input of the next. A shift register will transfer data from one FF to the next on each clock event. For example, if you have an 8-bit SR, after 8 clocks, the data that was initially present on the input to the first FF will appear on the output of the last FF.

Counters are much more complex; aside from the FFs they also have logic to implement the counting function. On each clock, the outputs of the counter will reflect an increment from the previous value. There are many ways a counter may count (binary, BCD, gray-code). For example, assuming an 4-bit binary counter, on successive clocks it will output 0000,0001,0010,0011,0100 etc.

 

[mister_rf]

A register is a memory device that can be used to store more than one bit of information and usually realized as several flip-flops with common control signals that control the movement of data to and from the register. The registers can hold data to be used for temporary storage or it can participate in arithmetic or logical operations.

A counter is a special case of a register. A counter is a register capable of incrementing and/or decrementing its contents, in other words a counter = a register that goes through a predetermined sequence of states.

 

[jeet_asic]

A counter is a special case of a register. Usually, it can only be loaded, stored, or incremented, or used for the stack or as the program counter.


But Shift registers are a type of sequential logic circuit, mainly for storage of digital data. They are a group of flip-flops connected in a chain so that the output from one flip-flop becomes the input of the next flip-flop. Most of the registers possess no characteristic internal sequence of states. A shift register can hold data, and it can be used for temporary storage or, in the case of an accumulator, it can participate in arithmetic or logical operations.

 

[farid82xxx]

Thanks so much for your response, that was very helpful

---------- Post added at 12:44 ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 ----------

thank you so much for your explanation ,helped me a lot

---------- Post added at 12:45 ---------- Previous post was at 12:44 ----------

Appreciate for your explanation ,that was very helpful