The authors describe a fully implemented multiple microprocessor system for real-time electric drive control, which emphasizes low cost, high performance, flexibility, and expandability. The prototype consists of a personal computer as the host computer, a transputer array as the high-speed computation engine, and a SAB 80C166 microcontroller as the master and I/O controller. With this low-cost, high-performance system a class of control algorithms for electrical drives has been implemented, and a DC motor drive which uses this system is presented, as an example. The results show that the system is powerful, relatively cheap, and easy to design