Hitachi, Ltd. has manufactured and delivered many all-digital speed control equipments to the iron and steel making industry, or cold tandem mills, hot tandem mills, processing lines, etc. , and has greatly enhanced plant operation efficiency, product quality and yield rate. The present article deals mainly with the effects obtained when applying a digital drive system to an iron and steel manufacturing plant, and also describes new techniques, such as new control algorithms aimed at higher performance and reliability, a new linkage system by optical cable and digitalization of ac variable speed control systems.