A neutralized Intel ME has 300 kB of code running, which is too small for a network stack.
Chek lwIP, you will be surprised. Full scale TCP/IP stack with only dozens of kb footprint. Pretty good thing, I use it often in small networking projects. More than enough for ME needs.
Is it the norm now to solder wifi chips onto the motherboard?
IDK, but I already saw few where everything is soldered on motherboard, including WiFi chip and SSD. Of course you still could find decent machines where CPU, memory, WWAN, WiFi, SSD are in sockets, but they are mostly expensive top things. Most modern laptops have CPU and at least part of memory soldered. I think soon we will have everything soldered laptops only. Sockets reduce profits, when a customer could just add some memory, replace CPU or SSD or replace WiFi card with a better one.
Chek lwIP, you will be surprised. Full scale TCP/IP stack with only dozens of kb footprint. Pretty good thing, I use it often in small networking projects. More than enough for ME needs.
IDK, but I already saw few where everything is soldered on motherboard, including WiFi chip and SSD. Of course you still could find decent machines where CPU, memory, WWAN, WiFi, SSD are in sockets, but they are mostly expensive top things. Most modern laptops have CPU and at least part of memory soldered. I think soon we will have everything soldered laptops only. Sockets reduce profits, when a customer could just add some memory, replace CPU or SSD or replace WiFi card with a better one.