GP is clearly talking about ESP32 boards, not the chip; they mentioned "LI Battery Controller", and "Display or Camera Connector". People sell RP2040 boards with those too, for example:

- board with a battery charger: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-feather-rp2040-pico/powe...

- board with camera: https://www.waveshare.com/pico-cam-a.htm

ESP32 is available as a tiny module that is soldered to the board as if it was a chip.

Ignoring the module results in a flawed comparison. The module is chip and frequently used.

If they encased the module in plastic and called it a chip, it would be the same. You can think of it as a chip.

Do they sell chip-like modules with camera connectors and battery controllers, though? I don't deny that ESP32 modules look like and are soldered as though they were chips, but to me it's clear that GP was mixing up chips (and chip-like modules) with boards.

Espressif sell bare chips, modules with castellations for soldering to a PCB, and complete boards that typically contain a module. Some 3rd-party boards use a bare chip. Some 3rd-party boards also have castellations, as do Picos sold without pre-soldered headers. 3rd-party modules are also a thing.

Here's a pic of a module and several boards that demonstrates all of that.

https://imgur.com/a/yxjG8vh

No, that's both "just the chip", the chips have different peripherals. They both have the usual SPI, I2C, UART, ADC, etc., and they have their differences too.

I could just as well say "For an RP2040 to do USB you wire the RP2040 to the connector. For an ESP32 to do USB you wire the 32 to another chip, and that other chip to a connector."

It's clear to me GP has the impression that ESP32 is something more (a development board with an ESP32?) than the ESP32 "chip" itself.

Maybe look at the ESP32 chip's datasheet? [1] This is the first sentence in it: "ESP32 is a single 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi-and-Bluetooth combo chip designed with the TSMC low-power 40 nm technology." That's the chip. Not the development board.

1: https://www.espressif.com/sites/default/files/documentation/...

The Espressif chips are available as cheap modules, and frequently used as such.

People generally refer to the module, not the isolated chip. The modules are effectively like a chip that you solder to the board.

Modules are "just" chip + all necessary hardware to start + antenna connector/pcb antenna. Those modules don't add any functionality to the chip.

The main benefit of those modules is: it's already certified with FCC and others, so you don't have to re-certify your design for radio communication. Since RP2040 does not have a radio, this is unnecessary.

What part of that contradicts my comment?

To be clear, GP is the one saying the ESP32 is more than just the chip itself, complete with battery controller and camera connector.

Hmm. You are right.

On a second re-read it seems we agree.