The paper describes the use of a multitransputer system for the implementation of highperformance vector control strategies for AC induction motors. These strategies constitute a complex real-time signal processing system and, as such, highlight the advantages and disadvantages of using parallelism for real-time motor control. The assessment of the transputer performance is felt to be significant, as it is shown that a generalised motor drive control ler exhibits some implicit parallel characteristics within its structure. The extent to which parallelism, and the transputer in particular, should be used for either development or commercial drive systems is therefore discussed.