I'm wondering if there's any "mainstream" wireless chipsets/adapters for PC's that have open specifications, to a level that would permit one to implement a custom driver (i.e. specifications of registers, mode of operation etc.)? It's OK if the chipset requires the upload of binary blobs (for which the source isn't available) to the chip/card itself etc. as long as the host <-> adapter interface is public. I'm looking for it mainly out of interest to see what this interface looks like, but I might also be interested in doing some coding myself. Thanks!
You have OpenWRT which is a fully capable open source router operation system, TP-LINK products are based on OpenWRT.
You may be also interested in https://www.zigbee.org/ more oriented to the Internet of Things and M2M wireless sensor networks.