Comment by TommyTran732

Which blobs are running on the Librem 5 CPU? Which blobs are running on GrapheneOS CPU?

Both the Pixel and Librem 5 have firmware baked into the SoC that is executed.

On GrapheneOS, the firmware is signed and updated along with the OS.

On the Librem 5, the firmware for Wifi/Bluetooth is stored on a NOR chip, which is read from and mounted into the OS by the initramfs into /lib/firmware.

Not-withstanding the above, Librem 5 components such as the USB controller, touch screen controller, radios, battery, etc simply have closed-source firmware baked in (stored on some flash chip on these components), but it doesn't mean that they are not there or in use.

In both cases, components either do not get proper firmware updates from the OS, or they are too old/low quality to get any firmware updates from the vendors to begin with. Storing firmware on the component is also a less secure approach than having signed firmware loaded by the OS, as it now means that these components have persistent storage which can be attacked.

Aside from all of the above, they also use a dedicated CPU core to run firmware blobs for things like memory training.

In essence, what the Librem 5 has achieved is shuffling proprietary firmware storage around instead of eliminating their existence or execution. It is not any more "free" or "open" than anyone else while also being less secure.