Hopefully I can translate (excuse the pun) some of the info for you.
The Translator is a box that interfaces between the car's ECM and the MAF you choose to replace the stock plastic MAF. The primary reason being several: The stock MAF when it dies is very difficult to get replaced, reliably. And the Chevy MAFs flow significantly better than the stock unit, even the 3" LT1 variety.
The most common MAFs to use are the 3" LT1 (from an Impala SS, and many others), or the 3.5" LS1
To run the Cevy MAFs you do of course need a Translator.
Inside the Translator are some switches that allow some adjustments to the BASE and WOT fuel delivery, however complete use of these switches requires the Extender chip (which I'll get to later).
In the Translator + (plus), you get the addition of BASE and WOT timing adjustments that allow you to make very sophisticated adjustemts to your timing curve. It also requires the addition of another wire spliced into the coil pack modules wiring harness. Not real tough, but some folks shy away from cutting wires.
It really IS worth the effort though, for many reasons. Not the least of which is being able to make your chip of choice both a street chip and a race chip (timing wise) by manipulating the timing curves.
OK. Now on to the Extender chip. This chip is like any other you would buy. It goes into the ECM. But that's where the similarity ends, and the fun starts!! I'll explain:
The chip originally was conceived to "extend" the ECM's ability to properly meter fuel at WOT. The stock setup and chips (stock or aftermarket) weren't able to do this properly because of the ECM's limit to measure any MAF readings beyond 255. Of course our engines are able to injest MUCH more airflow than that once you start approaching 15# of boost or more. That's why there was so much fuel pressure tweaking needed to go from street trim to race setup
The Extender "fools" the ECM into thinking that it's seeing half the airflow it really is, and will never (in most cases) reach the 255 limit and deliver fuel properly, and of course fuel delivery is properly maintained even after this "halving" by some other clever programming in the chip. So what you see on your scan tool is MAF readings that are half what you would expect.
The Extender has "grown" substantially since then and now is packed with some of the NEATEST features available to the user
Some of these features are:
Anti Theft, with valet and conveniece features. This anti theft feature, unlike any others, can be turned on or off by the user, and can be set to valet mode by the user.
Shift Light. (flashes the SES light at a pre determined rpm) (user adjustable)
WOT TCC lock up. (speed at lock up user definable, and can be turned on or off by the user).
Open Loop Idle. (can be turned on or off by the user)
Lean Cruise. (can be turned on or off by the user)
Spool fuel. (user adjustable)
Launch assist. (on or off by user)
There are other features available and being "played" with.
I highly recommend getting the Extender as part of a package with the Translator and MAF.
The tuning power it puts in your hands is unbelievable!!
The beauty of the whole system is, you now have one chip that TRUELY will fill the bill as either a sedate street chip, or a full on race chip.
I too got tired of all the fenagling I had to do between race chips/setups, and street chips/setups (and I even made my own chips!).
Without making any other changes to the car, my own street and race chips were finally able to better anything I could buy (because I could more easilly try different things).
However after switching over to the Translator +, LS1 MAF, and Extender combination, I have gone so much quicker and faster on the one chip than I could with any other previous varieties, including my own!!!!
No more fiddling with fuel pressure guesses, etc... Now I have swithch settings in the Translator to make the whole thing a steet chip, and another setting for full on race. The only tweaking I have to do at the track is in the WOT fueling to possibly compensate for different tracks (altitudes, etc.)
The only requirement needed to take full advantage of all the Extender's features is a scan tool able to monitor Block Learn (BLM) cells.
And of course NO self respecting Turbo Regal owner would be caught without some sort of scan tool at their disposal !!!!!!!!!!!!
I use a Scanmaster II for my daily driving chores, and Direct Scan for the track.
Hope that helps. Anyother questions or anything needs clerifying, just "holler".
T+ takes a splice in the harness 
