whe had suggested going to a place that sells new parts, such as
electrosonic, or active components (not to be confused with active surplus).
<p>
active components used to be at 14 carlton street (e.g. -14 college street),
but has now moved out of the downtown core.
<p>
most of the places that sell any reasonable selection of new components
are not located right in the downtown portion of the city.
<p>
some students have been buying 82c54 type timers from active components:
<pre>
To:     mann@eecg.toronto.edu
Cc:     corey@eyetap.org, tangf@eyetap.org
Subject: Re: Fwd: Acquiring the 82c54 chip for LAB6
Date:   Tue, 30 Oct 2001 18:20:23 

I found the chip at a store in Mississauga named Active Electronic 
Components Inc, @ 1350 Matheson Rd. Unit 2 south of the 401 west of Dixie.  
I saw maybe 3 more on the shelf.  It is the 10 MHz variety.

Dennis.
</pre>