TTL is getting hard to find, especially the more
obscure types such as
74S series. (And if the book says they want 74S, it's quite possible
no other variant will work...)
I do not think 74S is very hard to find (apart from the unprogrammed
PROMS, I suppose). Some of the 74L and 74H chips are getting difficult to
find, but these are the chips that never were popular (like the expanders
and AOI gates).
As a side note - does anyone know a source for ECL PALs (10K preferred
over 100K)? They were never popular either.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org