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Codiode/Problems/Sequential Logic

BCD Counter: Carry Out for Cascade

MediumLogic CircuitBuild

Digital clocks, multimeters, and frequency counters rely on cascaded decimal stages to represent human-readable numbers. The carry-out signal of a Binary-Coded Decimal (BCD) counter acts as the enable for the next highest digit in the cascade.

A standard 4-bit binary counter overflows at 15, but a BCD counter wraps around after 9. The combinational carry-out logic must assert CO HIGH only when the counter state Q[3:0] reaches 9 (binary 1001). Assume the input state is a valid BCD digit (0 through 9). States 10 through 15 will never occur.

| Q3 | Q2 | Q1 | Q0 | CO | |------|------|------|------|------| | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |

Constraints

  • Use only combinational logic.
  • Derive the output CO directly from the state bits Q3, Q2, Q1, and Q0.

Topics

BCDCombinational LogicCascadeCounters

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