system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What are the differences between consumer-grade CPUs made by AMD/Intel and Digital Signal Processirs made for industrial/military purposes?

Corollary: What makes the semi conductor material so important?
gpt
You seem to be confusing two things:

- general purpose CPU vs DSP.  DSP are CPU whose instruction sets and internal architecture are particularly well adapted to signal processing.  For such kind of application, they are more powerful (per watt, per dollar) than usual CPU.  You probably have several in your home (your cell phone, your modem, ...)

- ICs (general purpose CPU, DSP, memories, ...) are usually designed to work in a certain temperature range (and with less radiation than a threshold).  You can design them and chose the fabrication process to make them usable in a wider range of temperature and with an higher level of radiation.  This has usually a cost in performance but is needed for some industrial and military applications.