A method of direct instantaneous torque control for switched reluctance motor drives using pulse width modulation based on flux linkage prediction is presented in this paper. The torque characteristic of the machine allows a prediction of reference flux linkage for the next sampling time-step. By estimating this flux linkage, the necessary average phase voltage for the next PWM-period can be calculated to control a constant instantaneous torque output. Moreover, the sampling time of the control can be extended, which allows implementation on low cost microcontrollers. Furthermore, a novel strategy of torque prediction is proposed, which allows complete elimination of inherent torque ripple during phase commutation, without using offline-calculated current or flux profiles. The functionality of this strategy is verified by computer simulation and experiments.