Detecting rising edges from two different inputs

Question

I want to build a circuit with two inputs A and B and one output Q with the following behavior:

• assume A and B are never high at the same time
• on the rising edge of A, Q must become low (A means "clear")
• on the rising edge of B, Q must become high (B means "set")

Do I need to have a clock for such a simple circuit? It seems I cannot directly use (A or B) as the clock of a J-K flip-flop and at the same time use A and B as the inputs of the flip-flop because it would violate the setup time.

Is it acceptable practice to just use A as the clear and B as the preset of a flip-flop without using the clock and inputs of the flip-flop?

Finally, let's now remove the assumption that A and B are not high at the same time. How do I detect the rising edges of both inputs, again without a clock?

Answer 1

So you can indeed use the !PRE and !CLR lines on a JK Flip-Flop such as the 74ACT109 that has those lines. No need for a clock to be present, although you will want to tie the clock line low. As seen in the truth table from the datasheet:

See how the CLK line is a "don't-care" if either !PRE or !CLR are active (low). And so long as the CLK is low when they both return to HIGH then the outputs will retain their previous state.

If you want even more warm-fuzzies take a look at the actual logic-diagram:

Here I've activated the !PRE line by bringing it LOW and you can see it propagates through the logic to hold the value.

It's essential an SR latch, it's just easier to get buy a JK FLIP-FLOP with set and reset than it is to buy just an SR latch.

And finally these chips are like $0.20 so definitely buy one and bread-board it up.