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74AC191
RC T ruth T able
H = HIGH Voltage Level 
L = LOW Voltage Level 
X = Immaterial
 = LOW-to-HIGH Transition
 = Clock Pulse
Note 1: TC is generated internally
Functional Description
The AC191 is a synchronous up/down counter. The AC191 
is organized as a 4-bit binary counter. It contains four edgetriggered flip-flops with internal gating and steering logic to 
provide individual preset, count-up and count-down operations.
Each circuit has an asynchronous parallel load capability 
permitting the counter to be preset to any desire d number. 
When the Parallel Load (PL
) input is LOW, information
present on the Parallel Load inputs (P
0–P3
) is loaded into
the counter and appears on the Q outputs . This operatio n 
overrides the counting functions, as indicated in the Mode 
Select Table.
A HIGH signal on the CE
 input inhibits counting. When CE 
is LOW, internal state changes are initia ted synchro nously 
by the LOW-to-HIGH transition of the clock input. The 
direction of counti n g is d ete rmi n ed by th e U
/D input signal,
as indicated in the Mode Select Table. CE
 and U/D can be 
changed with the clo ck in either state, provided only th at 
the recommended setup and hold times are observed.
Two types of outputs are pro vided as overflow/underflow 
indicators. The terminal count (TC) output is normally 
LOW. It goes HIGH when the circuits reach zero in the 
count down mode or 15 in the cou nt up mode . The TC output will then remain HIGH until a state change occurs, 
whether by counting o r presetting or u ntil U
/D is changed. 
The TC output should not be used as a clock signal 
because it is subject to decoding spikes.
The TC signal is also use d internally to enable the Ripple 
Clock (RC
) output. The RC output is normally HIGH. When
CE
 is LOW and TC is HIGH, RC output will go LOW when 
the clock next goes LOW and will stay LOW until the clock 
goes HIGH again. This feature simplifies the design of multistage counters, as indi cated in Figure 1 a nd Figure 2. In 
Figure 1, each RC
 output is used as the clock input for the 
next higher stage. T his configurati on is partic ularly advantageous when the clo ck so ur ce has a limited drive ca pa bil ity, since it drives only the first stage. To prevent counting in 
all stages it is only necessary to inhibit the first stage, since 
a HIGH signal on CE
 inhibits the RC output pulse, as indi-
cated in the RC
 Truth Table. A disadvantage of this config uration, in some applicat ions, is the timing skew between 
state changes in the f irst and last stages . This represents 
the cumulative delay of the clock as it ripples through the 
preceding stages.
A method of causing state changes to occur simultaneously in all stages is shown in Figur e 2. All clock inputs 
are driven in pa rallel and the RC
 outputs propagate the 
carry/borrow signals in ripple fashion. In this configuration 
the LOW state duration of the clock must be long enough to 
allow the negative -go i ng edg e o f th e carry/borrow signal to
ripple through to the last stage before the clock goes HIGH. 
There is no such restriction on t he HIGH state duration of 
the clock, since the RC
 output of any device goe s HIGH
shortly after its CP input goes HIGH. 
The configuration shown in Figure 3 avoids ripple delays
and their associat ed restrictio ns. The CE
 input for a given 
stage is formed by combini ng the TC signals from all the 
preceding stages. Note that in order to inhibit countin g an 
enable signal must be in cluded in each carry gate. The 
simple inhibit scheme of Figure 1 and Figure 2 doesn't 
apply, because the TC output of a given stage is not 
affected by its own CE
.
Mode Select Table
State Diagram
 Inputs  Outputs
PL CE TC
(Note 1)
CP RC
 H L H
 H H X X H 
 H X L X H 
 L X X X H
 Inputs  Mode
PL
CE U/D  CP
 H L L
 Count Up
 H L H 
 Count Down 
 L  X  X  X  Preset (Asyn.) 
 H  H  X  X  No Change (Hold)