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There seem to be a number of different definitions of flip-flops and latches out there, some of which are contradictory.

The Computer Science text book for the course I teach is probably the most confusing (in fact I have little faith in the book because it’s just plain wrong in several places).

I am comfortable with the workings of latches (SR, gated SR, gated D), and the difference between level triggered and edge triggered devices, at least in terms of logic gates and timing diagrams. However, I am still looking for a concise definition of a flip flop and of a latch.

This is what I believe so far:

“A flip flop is an edge triggered bi-stable device that can store 1 bit”.

“A latch is a level triggered bi-stable device that can store 1 bit.”

I’ve had a look at previous posts on this website about this and, as enlightening as they are, I am still looking for something definitive.

My current understanding, which I want to check, is in the diagrams below…

Side by side are what I understand are two implementations of a level triggered gated D latch.

Below these is a positive edge detector, at that brief moment when the NOT gate has not yet responded to the change input from low to high, namely the rising edge (red is 1 blue is 0).

In the last diagram, the edge detector has been fitted to a dated D latch and this is what makes it a flip-flop.

enter image description here

Is the last diagram really a flip flop, or is it still just a latch?

And why do we need the master slave version given, that this device is so much simpler?

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    \$\begingroup\$ In Australia and New Zealand, they are a form of open-topped shoes often worn to the beach or out in fair weather. ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – KyranF
    Aug 10, 2016 at 15:37
  • 4
    \$\begingroup\$ In the US, too. But we used to call them thongs, but that refers to something different now ;-) \$\endgroup\$ Aug 10, 2016 at 21:14
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    \$\begingroup\$ Now I want to see a circuit diagram drawn with the sandals known as flip-flops... \$\endgroup\$
    – keshlam
    Aug 10, 2016 at 22:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ @KyranF No, those are jandals. \$\endgroup\$
    – user253751
    Jun 24, 2018 at 22:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ @immibis get outta here ya rotten kiwi! \$\endgroup\$
    – KyranF
    Jun 26, 2018 at 7:10

6 Answers 6

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I have been thinking about this definition a lot today.

As others pointed out, the exact meanings will vary. On top of that, you will probably see more people get this wrong, even on this site, than right. I don't care what wikipedia says!

But in general:

  • A flip flop will change it's output state at most once per clock cycle.
  • A latch will change its state as many times as the data transitions during its transparency window.

Additionally,

  • A flip flop is very safe. Almost fool-proof. For this reason synthesis tools usually use flip flops. But, they are slower than a latch (and use more power).
  • Latches are harder to use properly. But, they are faster than flip flops (and smaller). So, custom circuit designers will often "spread the flip flop" across their digital block (a latch on either end with opposite phase) to squeeze some extra picoseconds out of a bad timing arc. This is shown at the bottom of the post.

A flip flop is most typically characterized by a master-slave topology. This is two coupled (there can be logic between), opposite phase latches back to back (sometimes in industry called L1/L2).

This means a flip flop inherently consists of two memory elements: one to hold during the low cycle and one to hold during the high cycle.

A latch is just a single memory element (SR latch, D latch, JK latch). Just because you introduce a clock to gate flow of data into the memory element does not make it a flip flop, in my opinion (although it can make it act like one: i.e. more rising edge triggered). It just makes it transparent for a specific amount of time.

Shown below is a true flip flop create from two SR latches (notice opposite phase clocks).

true d ff

And another true flip-flop (this is the most common style in VLSI) from two D-latches (transmission gate style). Again notice the opposite phase clocks:

true flip flop tg style

If you pulse the clock to a latch quickly enough, it starts to resemble a flip flop behavior (pulse latch). This is common in high speed datapath design because of the lesser delay from D->Out and Clk->Out, in addition to the better setup time granted (hold time also must increase, small price to pay) by transparency through the duration of the pulse. Does this make it a flip flop? Not really, but it sure looks acts like one!

However, this is much harder to guarantee to work. You must check across all process corners (fast nmos, slow pmos, high wire cap, low wire r; as an example of one) and all voltages (low voltage causes problems) that the pulse from your edge detector remains wide enough to actually open the latch and allow data in.

For your specific question, as to why it is considered a pulse latch instead of a flip flop, it is because you truly only have a single level sensitive bit storage element. Even though the pulse is narrow, it does not form a lock-and-dam system which creates a flip flop.

Here is an article describing a very similar pulse latch to your inquiry. A pertinent quote: "If the pulse clock waveform triggers a latch, the latch is synchronized with the clock similarly to edge-triggered flip-flop because the rising and falling edges of the pulse clock are almost identical in terms of timing."

EDIT For some clarity I included a graphic of latch based design. There is a L1 latch and L2 latch with logic in between. This is a technique which can reduce delays, since a latch has lesser delay than a flip flop. The flip flop is "spread apart" and logic put in the middle. Now, you save a couple gate delays (compared to a flip flop on either end)!

latch based design

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  • \$\begingroup\$ "Characterized by a master-slave topology" - that sounds more like an implementation detail, rather than a defining behavioural characteristic. Behaviourally, a flip-flop (by your definition) is a single-bit memory that happens to be edge-triggered. In practice, the implementation magic required to approximate edge-triggering requires a second storage element! \$\endgroup\$ Aug 10, 2016 at 18:57
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    \$\begingroup\$ @OliverCharlesworth: Well, it is an implementation detail. As well as a physical, behavioural, structural, and topological detail. You can't just call a latch a flip flop because it seems like one. You might be able to get away with it, but to use them to the fullest you need to know the difference. If you spread apart a flip flop, you have two separate latches of opposite phase. You can stuff logic in the middle. This is faster than having a flip flop on either end. It also allows "time-borrowing" through a cycle boundary which is a very important concept for high speed designs. \$\endgroup\$
    – jbord39
    Aug 10, 2016 at 22:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ Here are some more useful pictures of DFF's that might help, see the last one. The DFF posted above is confusing due to the latching on opposite phases of the clock (i.e. master latches on rising edge, slave latches on falling). electronics.stackexchange.com/a/84247/42957 \$\endgroup\$
    – mrbean
    Jan 3, 2019 at 1:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ Would be nice to see an example of a true single-phase edge-triggered flip-flop ("TSPC" DFF) here. \$\endgroup\$
    – mrbean
    Jan 3, 2019 at 2:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ Here's a nice powerpoint: bwrcs.eecs.berkeley.edu/Classes/icdesign/ee241_s07/Lectures/… \$\endgroup\$
    – mrbean
    Jan 3, 2019 at 2:23
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Many people will refer to clocked devices as "flip flops" and non-clocked devices as latches. Back when I learned it, it was "clocked flip flops" and "flip flops". Either can be edge triggered.

There is enough ambiguity that when its important, rely on part numbersm data sheets, and timing diagrams,and not word descriptions.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Then a GTO-SCR is a flip-flop as well? \$\endgroup\$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 10, 2016 at 16:32
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Thanks to everyone who has answered my question. As expected, there is some disagreement. Unfortunately semantics are often more important than understanding when it comes to exams. If I need to argue with an exam board for incorrectly marking an A Level Computer Science student's exam paper (and I have done so in the past), I want to be in a strong position. I thought I'd share with you a couple of pages of the official A Level course text book.

The first diagram is an active low SR latch. The book calls it a flip-flop.

In the text, the book says "By using two flip-flops we can create a circuit called a D-Type flip-flop which uses a clock controlled circuit to control the output, delaying it by one clock pulse. The D stands for delay." This text seems to be referring to the master/slave configuration. The second diagram (figure 14.2) is labelled as a D-type flip-flop. It is actually an active high gated D latch.

Not very helpful!

I'm going to settle on "A flip flop is most typically characterized by a master-slave topology." as jbord39 has suggested, with the caveat that the term flip-flop is often used to mean an edge triggered latch, and sometimes just any sort of latch. I think this is where by book is coming from, albeit not getting there convincingly.

Thanks again to all.

enter image description here enter image description here

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    \$\begingroup\$ Yeah that book is straight misleading. Plus, D stands for Data, not delay ... lol The important part is to understand how they work and not get too caught up in semantics. I explained the semantics as they were explained to me at the companies where I've worked. It could vary with the area and experience level (especially relative to the internals of the logic gates, which is what I work on). \$\endgroup\$
    – jbord39
    Aug 10, 2016 at 22:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ I have to agree with jbord39. Like I have shown in my answer, that E input only enables the data to affect the output. Yet you have textbooks that consist incorrect information. Quite annoying actually. \$\endgroup\$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 10, 2016 at 23:22
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A flip flop is different than a latch. They are both bi-stable circuits, but they are two different things in fact.

The latch has an enable pin and listens to the data input/inputs only when this pin is high. When it is low, the latch freezes and memorises its state. Now even you manipulate the inputs, it won't react.

The flip flop contains a clock pin instead, which reacts only at changing pulses (level shifts). Think of a square wave. The transient time between off and on;off and on is the time in which the circuit reacts to input signals. Only then is it available to change, not when the pin is stable and fully on.

Flip flop react time

Note the green lines represent the period it listens to input and the red lines the period when it doesn't. The latch allows input only during the periods shown by the uppermost red lines.

The stand-alone SR is not a feasible circuit in practice.

Credits to jbord39 for pointing out the mistake. Image taken from radio-elctronics.com and edited.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ A flip flop is not a latch, but is can be built from two opposite phase latches back to back. \$\endgroup\$
    – jbord39
    Aug 10, 2016 at 15:04
  • \$\begingroup\$ I edited the answer @jbord39 \$\endgroup\$ Aug 10, 2016 at 18:48
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you,@Peter Mortensen.I didn't see those. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 11, 2016 at 12:43
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The terms as you use them in your question are 100% in line with what I've heard used in the context of analog IC design. Latches have a level-sensitive enable signal, whereas flip flops have edge-sensitive enable signals called 'clock'. I have noticed a few places online or in some books that seem to use the term flip flop for both types, which can make sense if you just think about the circuit state "flip flopping" between two stable points, but whenever designers are talking about a circuits where I work, latches are level sensitive and flip flops (or also commonly just "flops") are edge sensitive.

About your other question of whether to design a flip flop as a latch with an edge detector vs. a pair of master-slave latches. Either way can work, assuming there is enough delay in your edge detector. Latches will have some minimum amount of enable time. I suspect it's just harder to make a high speed flip flop using the edge detector technique, and the setup/hold time might vary more over process/voltage/temperature.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I wonder why I seldom see flops implemented with master/slave pair with non-overlapping logic thresholds (so an input voltage below VDD/4 would enable the master, and a voltage above VDD/2 would enable the slave. If multiple cascaded flops are fed a slowly-rising or noisy input signal, behavior would be reliable provided only that, on a rising edge, none of them see a voltage below VDD/4 after any have seen a voltage above VDD/2. \$\endgroup\$
    – supercat
    Aug 10, 2016 at 15:52
  • \$\begingroup\$ @supercat You're talking about hysteresis? \$\endgroup\$
    – Cort Ammon
    Aug 10, 2016 at 17:55
  • \$\begingroup\$ @CortAmmon: Nope--something better. If two flip flops with independent Schmidt triggers are cascaded, incorrect operation may result if the first flop recognizes the clock edge and propagates the input through to the output before the second flop recognizes its clock edge. If the flip flops use split input thresholds, the second flop would capture its input when the clock rises above the lower threshold, but the first flop's output wouldn't change until the clock reaches the upper threshold. \$\endgroup\$
    – supercat
    Aug 10, 2016 at 18:06
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(Skip to the end if you want to know if the OP's last circuit is flip-flop or latch.)

In basic terms, a Flip-Flop is a arrangement of logic gates (or components) that allows the latching of 2 states along with a clock pin that enables these changes of states.

Now here is the difference between a Flip-flop and a latch. Latches are asynchronous while Flip-flops are synchronous.

  • Asynchronous latches do not require an update pin, which would be commonly called the CLK (short for clock) pin in a flip-flop. All they care is if the inputs are in a specific state, either HIGH or LOW. When a certain combination of HIGHs and LOWs are instigated in the input, that is when the circuit decides to perform an action, and your desired outcome is returned "immediately". There are 4 possible actions in a latch.

    1. Do nothing
    2. Set Q to HIGH
    3. Set Q to LOW
    4. The invalid state (supposedly invert the value of Q)

    Note that Q' is dependent on Q.

An example is the SR latch which demonstrates all 4 possible actions a latch can do: RS Latch

  1. When S is LOW and R is LOW, nothing changes.
  2. When S is HIGH and R is LOW, Q is set to HIGH.
  3. When S is LOW and R is HIGH, Q is set to LOW.
  4. When S is HIGH and R is HIGH, Q is inverted, at a "unpredictably" fast rate. This state is invalid.
  • Synchronous flip-flops allow you to set a value to data pins. This means that it only cares about what these pins's state are. However the circuit doesn't decide to do any action to the output yet. You have the CLK pin as mentioned above. When the CLK pin changes state (either from LOW to HIGH, vice-versa or even both), the data pins are "captured" and the flip-flop performs an action based on the combination of HIGHs and LOWs of the data captured from the data pins. There are two actions for the CLK pin.
  1. Do nothing
  2. "Capture" data from the data pins and perform an action on the output based on values of data pins at that specific moment of time.

Again there are 4 possible actions the circuit can do on the output.

  1. Do nothing
  2. Set Q to HIGH
  3. Set Q to LOW
  4. Invert the value of Q (now it's valid because it only does it once)

THIS IS NOT A FLIP-FLOP:

enter image description here

But why you may ask? That E pin is not a clock pin. Clock pins let the circuit analyse the information from the data pins ONCE where that information gets sent as instructions to perform specific actions on the output. However enable pins like this one lets the circuit analyse the information from the data pins as long as it is held high and is constantly setting the values of the output. Thus it is a latch. (Thx to jbord39 for pointing out my mistake).

So the Flip-flop is like a latch, except you need an extra "confirmation" step, which is the CLK pin.

So is that last circuit of the OP's question a flip-flop? Try holding the C on high and see if the output changes when you change the value of D. If the output changes, it should be called enable instead and is a latch. But if the output doesn't change (in which that's the case), then it's a flip-flop.

Images are sourced from Wikipedia.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ No, lots of latches have clock pins. nxp.com/documents/data_sheet/74HC_HCT373.pdf in fact the circuit you showed is a latch not a flip flop... \$\endgroup\$
    – jbord39
    Aug 10, 2016 at 15:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ @jbord39 ? What clock pin? And enable pin is different to a clock pin. \$\endgroup\$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 10, 2016 at 15:25
  • \$\begingroup\$ @jbord39 and whoops you are right. The bottom two circuits are latches. Please reconsider my answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 10, 2016 at 15:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ Let me see if I understand.Flip flops check each input and switch on a output and a latch checks the clock and acts if it is 1,outputting the value of D.So the SR latch IS a flip-flop as it's not clocked,but the D latch is a true latch. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 10, 2016 at 15:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ @DanielTork The thing is you got multiple "clocks" and a clock can't alternate between pins and also serve as a data pin. \$\endgroup\$
    – Bradman175
    Aug 10, 2016 at 15:59

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