ESP8266? Yes, I’ve read about that chip many times, but up to this point in time I haven’t taken notes and references for information on the chip. In brief, I’ll explain the chip as follows. The ESP8266 and related chips are a very popular alternative for small embedded microcontroller applications where you might otherwise use an Arduino. However, unlike an Arduino, it has Wi-Fi built-in, it is very small, it has few external interface pins, and in theory it would be very cheap if mass produced. There is a newer version of the chip named ESP32.
My main reason why I do not like the chip? Well, like I may have pointed out, some of the claims of the chip like its cost isn’t really a reliable one to hinge off of for hobbyist use. Also, for hobbyist use, I’m not sure you could really say this is a good standard chip if it started out with poor documentation, and the specifics by which it became popular may point to it being a fleeting fad rather than something that’s going to be here to stay for quite some time like the Raspberry Pi. So, my preference would be to avoid it for my own electronics projects. For now, at least.
20181110/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266
20181110/http://esp8266.net
20181110/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP32
20181110/https://www.espressif.com/en/products/hardware/esp32/overview