In this paper, an active magnetic bearing(AMB) system is designed and controlled using a digital Proportional-Integral-Derivative(PID) control concept. The plant dynamics consisting of actuator and rigid rotor dynamics are described. A digital PID controller with a global control and a local control concept is designed and implemented using digital signal processor. Some experiments are conducted with each global control and local control concept. These include start-up test, impulse test, whirl response, and generator load test. The experimental results and comparison between those of a global control and a local control indicate that the global control of concept has impressive static and dynamic control performance for the prototype considered. From the whirl test, the developed system set can be controlled within about $pm10mu extrm{m}$ gap variation at the rotational speed of 6000rpm and generate the AC power of frequency of $60 extrm{Hz}$, voltage of 100V and current of 0.8$ extit{A}$.