50MHz used to be right on the edge for FAST and FACT multi-bit synchronous counters. Single J/K and D-type FAST and FACT bistables toggled at up to about 125MHz, so you should have the option of playing messy games.
ECLinPS can do 500MHz, but it would be a bit of an overkill for the job.
A chunk of fast programmable logic is probably the easiest way to handle the task.
Peter Alfke - a Xilinix applications engineer - hangs out on comp.arch.fpga and was talking about 200MHz fully synchronous counters a few years.
Farnell stock some 7.5nsec Lattice parts which might be good enough for
50MHz - I've not played with them at all so I've got no idea how they'd stuck up in reality, but someone on comp.arch.fpga will probably be much better informed.
-------------- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen