A nonlinear speed controller for a surface mounted permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) based on a newly developed adaptive backstepping approach is presented To compensate parameter uncertainties and load torque disturbance, a nonlinear adaptive backstepping control law and adaptive law are derived systematically through virtual control input and suitable Lyapunov function. Also, speed observer without using costly speed sensor is presented. Simulation results show that the proposed controller can observe the speed and track the reference speed signal generated by a reference model.