Basically, there are 3 kinds of Wifi architectures: Hostless, Hosted, Hosted with command such as At Command or other command.
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Hostless
This architecture is also called MCU Wifi, it doesn't need external MCU or MPU, all of the wireless transceiver, wireless stack and user application are in the same chip.
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Hosted
This architecture is used in more complex devices, only Wireless Transceiver work in Wifi chip, Wireless stack and application work in MCU or MPU.
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Hosted with Command
This architecture is used mainly for offload main control MCU Wireless Stack task to Wifi Chip, it's the compromise between Hostless and Hosted architecture. It can be used in condition where MCU is insufficient to handle all tasks.
Currently Alta project use Hosted architecture, if we want offload Wireless Stack to Wifi chip, we can redesign software to Hosted with Command.
The following are feature for different wifi mode from NXP:
Standalone is hostless mode, RCP mode is hosted mode, NCP mode is hosted mode with command.