A decade counter is a type of digital electronic circuit that is used to count events or pulses in groups of ten. It's specifically designed to count from 0 to 9 and then reset back to 0, effectively counting in a decimal manner. Each time it receives an input pulse, it advances its count by one. When it reaches the count of 9, it automatically resets back to 0 and starts counting again.
Decade counters are often used in various applications, such as in digital clocks, frequency dividers, and other systems where counting events in multiples of ten is important.
The maximum count a decade counter can reach is 9, as it is designed to count only from 0 to 9 before resetting. If you need to count beyond 9, you would need to use additional logic or multiple counters cascaded together. For example, you could use a second decade counter to count the tens, a third decade counter to count the hundreds, and so on. This arrangement would allow you to count higher numbers by combining the counts from each counter stage.