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
