ESP8266 Community Forum

I have the assignment to evaluate 8266 stuff for a project but I am new to 8266 stuff and need some help..

I'm starting out by making a table with the following columns for the 8266...

The 8266 PC Board Assembly Manufacturer
Link to PC Board spec's, features & onboard peripherals
Link to PC Board pinout
The 8266 Chip Manufacturer
The embedded micro-controller in the 8266 Chip
The embedded micro-controller architecture (drawing/diagram/schematic)
The instruction set for the embedded micro-controller

So with that in mind I have a four questions...

1 - Who manufactures & sells the various PC Board Assemblies
with the onboard 8266 chip, the WiFi Antenna, and the on board peripherals?
Adafruit seems to be one...
So who are the other principal 8266 board assembly manufactures that should be considered?

2 - Who manufactures the 8266 chip/module itself?
Espressif seems to be one...
So who are the other principal 8266 chip manufacturers?

3 - Which micro controller aka processor is embedded in the various 8266 chips ?

4 - dito to all the above for the 32 bit version... aka ESP32 ?

Of course we will start by defining our needs...
and then work to match those needs to the various pre-fab hardware on the market.

So, after over a week of online searches and reading & watching video's until my eyes have rolled back in my head...
I would really appreciate some kind assistance in answering these four questions to get me back on the ball field

Thanks.

1. There are large numbers of esp8266 modules. AI Thinker was one of the first, Wemos, NodeMCU, Espruino, etc. If you look inside the boards.txt file that is in the Arduino IDE that will give you an idea of the major module types. There are also rip off manufacturers so that a "ESP-12F" or a NodeMCU is not necessarily made by the original manufacturer.

2. Espressif is a chip designer. They start with the customisable core processor form Cadence (Tensilica) and chose which bits they wanted, and added on extras to make the ESP8266EX chip design which is used in all ESP8266 modules. They do not perform the physical manufacturer of the chips. That is done by their foundry partners.

3. See answer 2, Tensilica core forms the basis.

4. Similar answers apply to the ESP-32