The aim of paper is to employ digital fractional order proportional integral derivative (FO-PID) controller for speed control of buck converter fed DC motor. Optimal pole-zero approximation method in discrete form is proposed for realization of digital fractional order controller. The stand-alone controller is implemented on embedded platform using digital signal processor TMS320F28027. The five tuning parameters of controller enhance the performance of control scheme. For tuning of the controller parameters, dynamic particle swarm optimization technique is employed. The proposed control scheme is simulated on MATLAB and verified by experimental results. Performance comparison shows better speed control of separately excited DC motor with the realized digital FO-PID controller than that of the integer order PID controller.