Final answer:
The two primary parts of a knowledge-based system are differentiated by its software, which includes programs and algorithms, and its hardware, consisting of physical computational devices. Interaction between both is crucial for the decision-making process in complex automated systems.
Step-by-step explanation:
The components that differentiate the two primary parts of a knowledge-based system are its software and hardware. The hardware consists of the physical devices, like processors, drives, and memory, which execute the computational tasks and store data. Whereas the software includes the programs and applications that provide instructions for the hardware to perform its duties. This includes complex algorithms and databases in knowledge-based systems that assist in decision-making processes.
Knowledge-based systems incorporate human-software interactions and play significant roles in automating complex systems, where decision-making often relies on the software's ability to process vast quantities of data. An analogy compares the brain's role in processing information gathered by the senses to how software processes data on hardware. Interesting to note, the concept of a system, as understood in the context of the Essential Knowledge (like 1.A.1 and 1.A.5), can be physical or abstract, with systems like knowledge-based ones consisting of both hardware and software.