The brushless servo drive is arguably the most important emerging drive category for robotics, machine tools and other applications. This places increasingly high demands on the servo motor and controller. The brushless servo drive is arguably the most important emerging drive category for robotics, machine tools and other applications. This places increasingly high demands on the servo motor and controller. Two PID design methods are studied for the speed controller, an "analog design approach" and a "grapho-analytical pole-placement procedure". The former provided an easy design and the later resulted in a more satisfactory control performance. The thermal protection controller uses a generic lumped capacitance-resistance thermal model to predict the motor temperature. A current limit regulator is developed to maintain the motor temperature below this insulation limit, and to maximize the motor output once the limit is reached. A simulation scheme for this servo system is developed to investigate the control characteristics of the system before experimental testing. The digital speed controller has been implemented using the TMS320C30, a high performance digital signal processor. The control software, written in the TMS320C30 assembly language, is developed. Experimental results are presented, which demonstrate the performance improvement of the designed control system.