The counters are fully programmable; that is, they can be preset to any number between 0 and 9 or 15. Presetting is synchronous; therefore, setting up a low level at the load input disables the counter and causes the outputs to agree with the setup data after the next clock pulse, regardless of the levels of the enable inputs. The clear function is synchronous. A low level at the clear (CLR) input sets all four of the flip-flop outputs low after the next low-to-high transition of CLK, regardless of the levels of the enable inputs. This synchronous clear allows the count length to be modified easily by decoding the Q outputs for the maximum count desired. The active-low output of the gate used for decoding is connected to CLR to synchronously clear the counter to 0000 (LLLL).