A flip flop IC (integrated chip) is an electronic chip that's used in a flip flop circuit - a type of circuit that has two stable states. Flip flop circuits are mainly used in computers to store and transfer data.
How do flip flop circuits work?
Flip flop circuits are non linear circuits, which means that the output from one of its gates (devices which allow an electronic system to make a decision based on the number of its inputs) is fed 'back' to be processed with the input signal.
Flip flop circuits work on an input signal mixed with this previous output signal so that their own outputs are dependent upon their previous state. Flip flop circuits differ from latches in that they have a control signal (clock) input.
What are flip flop ICs used for?
A flip flops ICs can store information. By connecting several flip flop ICs together, you can store data that can represent the state of a sequencer, the value of a counter or an ASCII character in a computer's memory.
