How do data and address strobes cause input to be latched

clockdigital-communicationslatch

Often in digital systems when multiple components communicate with each other they use strobe signals. Among these are data and address strobes. The strobe signal being asserted means that the data or address is ready to be latched. However, the actual latching takes place only on the edge as the strobe signal is deasserted.

In sequential circuits a clock signal is used to latch data in the registers. How does this strobe signal relate to the clock? Is it actually fed into the clock port of the registers perhaps after inversion to match the edge with what is required by the register to latch data?

Best Answer

In clocked systems, the "strobe" signal is treated as an "enable" signal for the corresponding latch or register. In other words, the data is captured on any clock edge for which the strobe or enable is active. This means that the timing is strictly relative to the clock edge, but the strobe indicates which clock edges are relevant.