In a doubly salient permanent-magnet (DSPM) motor drive, it is difficult to get satisfied control characteristics by using a normal linear proportional plus integral (PI) controller due to the high nonlinearity between speed and current or torque. Hence, a new self-tuning fuzzy PI controller with conditional integral, which is performed by a single-chip N87C196KD, is proposed. The initial parameters of the controller are optimized by using genetic arithmetic. Simulation and experiments on the newly proposed 8/6-pole DSPM machine have shown that the proposed new self-tuning fuzzy PI controller offers better adaptability than the normal linear PI control and that the developed motor drive offers better steady-state and dynamic performances.