I’ve gathered from reading Bunnie’s blog that there are reels, tubes, tapes, trays, and possibly other kinds of feeder mechanism for surface mount parts, and which one you use depends on what your pick and place machine is equipped/designed to use, as well as what the schematic was designed for, as different feeder types for the same chip have different pin lengths and other variables which prevent swapping out chips like for like due to physical properties and constraints. There are also speed and reliability considerations with regard to feeder mechanisms, while some larger or irregularly shaped parts may need special handling which dictates the feeder and the type of placement hardware.

(I probably am using some or all of the technical words above incorrectly, but I am going mostly from memory and hope to be corrected as I don’t know much about hardware design or manufacturing.)

https://www.bunniestudios.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_placement

>I have no idea how expensive the Realtek chip is or anything else to put that in context, though.

Thanks. If those 2500 for $4.29 are "current" rate. ( Chip Shortage ) Then it should be cheaper than current Realtek. But in terms of normal pricing that is quite a bit more.