The agreement gives Motorola the right to use the Macintosh operating system in a new line of computers, which it will market under its own name. It also allows Motorola to sub-license Apple technology to manufacturers that buy Motorola's motherboards and private label systems.

Monday's agreement is designed to address two problems: Apple's sagging share of the world computer market, which declined to 7 percent in the fourth quarter from 8 percent in the year-earlier period; and sluggish demand for the PowerPC chip, which was developed jointly by Motorola, IBM and Apple for $1 billion and introduced with great fanfare in 1993.

By allowing Motorola to sub-license the Mac OS operating system to other manufacturers and to incorporate it in a new family of Motorola-branded computers aimed at the business market, Apple hopes to increase demand for its products.