Traditional microprocessors, built on silicon, have seen significant performance improvements in recent years due to shrinking transistor sizes - however, expense remains a barrier for integrating such chips into disposable or flexible products.
This cost is typically driven by three main factors: the expensive silicon fabrication processes, licensing fees for proprietary instruction sets like x86, and the costs of chip packaging. Additionally, the inherent brittleness of silicon makes it unsuitable for use in flexible or wearable devices.
