Dr.

Sathya P
Associate Professor
SENSE
 Binary parallel adder
• Two or more full adders are connected to form parallel binary adder.

• A single full adder is capable of adding two 1-bit numbers and an input carry.

• To add binary numbers with more than one bit, additional full adders are required.

• To add 2-bit numbers, two adders are needed; for 4-bit numbers, four adders are used;
and so on.

• The carry output of each adder is connected to the carry input of the next higher order
adder.

• Either a half adder can be used for the least significant position or the carry input of full
adder can be made 0.
2 – bit parallel Adder:
Four Bit parallel adder
 Logic Symbol
• A group of 4-bits is called a
nibble.
• A basic 4-bit parallel adder is
implemented with 4 full adder
stages.
• The LSBs (A1 and B1) in each
number being added go into the
right most full adder whereas,
the MSBs (A4 and B4) in each
number is assigned to the left
most full adder.
• The carry output of each adder
is connected to the carry input
of the next higher order adder.
These are called internal carries.
Truth table for each stage of a 4-bit parallel adder

• The subscript n represents

the adder bits and can be 1,
2, 3, or 4.

• Cn-1 is the carry from the

previous adder.

• Carries C1, C2, and C3 are

generated internally. C0 is
an external carry input and
C4 is an output.
The 74LS283 4-bit parallel adder
Adder Expansion (Cascading of two 4 bit numbers)
 Types of Binary Parallel Adder
• A binary adder is a digital circuit that produces the arithmetic sum of two binary
numbers.

• It can be constructed with full adders connected in cascade, with the output carry from
each full adder connected to the input carry of the next full adder in the chain.

• Addition of n-bit numbers requires a chain of n full adders or a chain of one half adder
and n-1 full adders.

• Types of Binary adder: (Based on carry handling)

• Ripple carry adder

• Carry Look Ahead adder

 4-bit Ripple Carry Adder
A ripple carry adder is one in which the carry output of each full adder is connected
to the carry input of the next higher order stage. The sum and the output carry of any
stage cannot be produced until the input carry occurs. Since the input carry (C0)
ripples through the full adders to the output carry C4, it is called as Ripple Carry
Adder.
• The augend bits of A and addend bits of B are designated by subscript numbers
from right to left, with subscript denoting the least significant bit.
• The carries are connected in a chain through full adders. The input carry to the
adder is C0, and it ripples through the full adders to the output carry C4.
• The S outputs generate the required sum bits.
• An n-bit adder requires n full adders, with each output carry connected to the
input carry of the next higher order full adder.
• For the addition of two binary numbers in parallel adders, all the bits of the augend
and addend should be available for computation at the same time.

• The signal must propagate through the gates before the correct output sum is
available in the output terminals.

• The total propagation time is equal to the propagation delay of a typical gate, times
the number of gate levels in the circuit.

• The longest propagation delay time in an adder is the time it takes the carry to
propagate through the full adders.
• The signal from the input carry Ci to output carry Ci +1 propagates through an AND gate
and an OR gate in a full adder.

• For 4 bit ripple carry adder using 4 full adders, the output carry C4 would have 2 x 4 = 8
gate levels from C0 to C4.

• In general, for an n-bit adder, there are 2n gate levels for the carry to propagate from
input to output.

• Carry propagation delay = Propagation delay of gate x number of gate levels.