The ESP8266 Arduino Core is available through GitHub. With this core, the ESP8266 CPU and its Wi-Fi components can be programmed like any other Arduino device. Another alternative is the 'Unofficial Development Kit' by Mikhail Grigorev. Īn alternative to Espressif's official SDK is the open-source ESP-Open-SDK that is based on the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) toolchain, maintained by Max Filippov. Since then, there have been many official SDK releases from Espressif Espressif maintains two versions of the SDK - one that is based on FreeRTOS and the other based on callbacks.

In October 2014, Espressif Systems released a software development kit (SDK) for programming the chip directly, which removed the need for a separate microcontroller. These microcontroller chips have been succeeded by the ESP32 family of devices.

The ESP8285 is a similar chip with a built-in 1 MiB flash memory, allowing the design of single-chip devices capable of connecting via Wi-Fi. The very low price and the fact that there were very few external components on the module, which suggested that it could eventually be very inexpensive in volume, attracted many hackers to explore the module, the chip, and the software on it, as well as to translate the Chinese documentation. However, at first, there was almost no English-language documentation on the chip and the commands it accepted. This small module allows microcontrollers to connect to a Wi-Fi network and make simple TCP/IP connections using Hayes-style commands. The chip was popularized in the English-speaking maker community in August 2014 via the ESP-01 module, made by a third-party manufacturer Ai-Thinker. The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi microchip, with built-in TCP/IP networking software, and microcontroller capability, produced by Espressif Systems in Shanghai, China. ESP-01 module by Ai-Thinker with ESP8266EX SoC

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