The CD54/74HC190 are asynchronously presettable BCD decade counters, whereas the CD54/74HC191 and CD54/74HCT191 are asynchronously presettable binary counters.

Presetting the counter to the number on preset data inputs (A–D) is accomplished by a low asynchronous parallel load (LOAD)\ input. Counting occurs when LOAD\ is high, count enable (CTEN)\ is low, and the down/up (D/U) input is either high for down counting or low for up counting. The counter is decremented or incremented synchronously with the low-to-high transition of the clock.

When an overflow or underflow of the counter occurs, the MAX/MIN output, which is low during counting, goes high and remains high for one clock cycle. This output can be used for look-ahead carry in high-speed cascading (see Figure 1).