PDP-8 on FPGA project & where is Hans Pufal?

[Tony Duell]

> > Your code above does not result in latches.  It results in D type
> > flipflops!
> 
> What's the difference?  As I've learned to use the words, D-flops _are_
> latches.  Have I mislearnt?

As I understand the terms, a D-type flip-flop is edge-triggered, a latch 
(or more exactly a transparent latch) is level-operated.

What I eman is that for a D-type flip-flop, the output (Q) is set equal 
to the input (D) a short time after the rising edge (say), of the clock 
signal. At all othter times Q does not change state, no matter what D 
does. So if clock is held high all the time, or held low all the time, Q 
will never change.

But with a transparent latch, then if the clock (sometimes called the 
enable input) is in one sate (say high). then the output (Q) tracks the 
input (D). When the clock input goes low, then Q is held in whatever 
state it was in as the clock input went low. 

A simple example of the differnce. If you take a D-type flip-flop and 
connect the output to a NOT gate and the output of that back to the D 
input, then you get a divide-by-2-circuit. Feed in a regular clock at one 
frequency and the Q output will toggle at half that frequency. But if you 
do the same thing with a transparent latch, you get something that 
oscillates at a frequency determined by the propagation delays when the 
clock is high. In other words the output is somewhat unpredicatable, it's 
certainly not a square wave at half the frequency of the clock signal.

-tony