Shift register (74HC164)

Digital logic · Intermediate · about 15 minutes · part of Zen’s Electronics Design Mastery

A shift register is a row of D flip-flops sharing one clock, each feeding the next. Every clock edge moves the stored bits one place along and takes a new bit in at the start. It turns serial data (one wire) into parallel data (eight wires).

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How it works

Try it on the bench

1. Set DATA = 1 and pulse the clock once: Q0 lights. Set DATA = 0 and keep pulsing: the lit bit walks along the row.
2. Switch the clock to RUN at 2 Hz and flip DATA to draw patterns.

Parts on the bench

• Bench power supply
• DIP switch module
• Clock / pulse generator
• 74xx164
• 8 × Logic indicator LED

In the course

Zen’s Electronics Design Mastery, module “Digital Electronics”.

More on digital logic

• AND gate
• OR gate
• NOT gate
• NAND gate
• NOR gate
• XOR gate
• NAND as a universal gate
• Half adder