ESP8266 Community Forum

1 - As I understand it the 8266 "chip" contains...
- A micro-controller
- WiFi circuitry
and maybe some other odds and ends.
Right?

2 - While the PC Board assembly contains...
- the 8266 "chip"
- the WiFi Antenna
- and some other discrete circuitry.
Right?

3 - I've also been informed that EspressIF is the manufacturer of the 8266 chip... right?

4 - Is there no one else who manufactures their own version of the 8266 chip?

5 - Or is the ExpressIF 8266 chip on every 8266 PC Board Assembly on the market... regardless of who manufactured the pc board assembly... Adafruit, AI Thinker, Wemos, NodeMCU, etc?

6 - I've also been informed that the micro-controller inside the 8266 "chip" is EspressIF's customized version of the Cadence (Tensilica) micro-controller... right?

7 - But is that true for all 8266 "chips" Seems like I read that some 8266 "chips" have the ATmega32d micro-controller in them...
so do different 8266 "chips" come with different micro-controller's on board or dothey all use the EspressIF customized version of the Cadence (Tensilical) micro-controller?

Thank for any kind assistance here as I'm trying to get my arms around all of this.

You are correct on all counts, except one point in 7 - ATmega is ATmega, it's not Espressif ESP8266. It is never on an 8266 board or chip.

You may perhaps be thinking of the Arduino system, which is an environment that has been ported to work on a range of chips, including both the ATmega and the ESP8266