Talk:Latch

Latches/Flops

My digital design friends tell me there's a distinction between latches and flip-flops. Larsbrinkhoff (talk)

Your friends are right. Wikipedia uses the confusing 'a flip-flop or latch is..', which is easy to interpret to mean that 'latch' is just another word for 'flip-flop', which is not what is meant. There is a distinction, although there's overlap (b/c there are different types of latches). And when I design something I think of latches and flip-flops as entirely different things (e.g. flip-flops to divide or fix clock signals, latches to buffer/hold data). (Here's a web page which talks about flip-flops vs latches): http://www.electronicsteacher.com/computer-architectures/digital-circuits/flip-flops.php Tor (talk) 09:35, 12 March 2018 (CET)

Thanks. Then maybe the redirect from Latch to Flip-flop isn't entirely appropriate. Although, it might be better than nothing. Larsbrinkhoff (talk)

In current terminology, the two indeed refer to sets of things which do not overlap. However, after thinking about it (which I hadn't done before :-), I still think it might be appropriate to cover them in one article:

• They are both devices which use feedback to store information
• Separate articles would therefore have a lot of duplication
• Historically (and this is a history wiki :-), the terms were not so carefully delineated; e.g. in Pfister's book (he's the guy who came up with the whole SR/D/JK/T nomenclature), he talks about "R-S flip-flops"

I will definitely try and make clearer (than it already is) that in contemporary terminology, the two terms refer to disjoint sets. See what you think... Jnc (talk) 14:15, 13 March 2018 (CET)