What do you think is in that "microcode"? Most of what I mentioned is usually running on an ARM of some sort. I count that code as an OS, because it's a pretty narrow definition otherwise.
I'm totally willing to be admit that I might be wrong about this, but I wasn't under the impression that Broadcom and Atheros and Intel were using ARM CPUs in their wifi/bluetooth/GPS chipsets.
The cost of laying down a fully-fledged CPU has reduced to the point where it's simpler and less risky to use an off-the-shelf ARM core (or similar), instead of a big bunch of hard logic combined with coefficient. And most of those CPUs have some sort of runtime, which is an OS, depending on where you draw the line on that.
Can someone say what this is used for:
$ grep GOOGLE /usr/src/linux/.config
# CONFIG_GOOGLE_FIRMWARE is not set
?
This is not like net interface blob, this is like google firmware and we all know what that means >:-)