In the paper control of linear permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) based on the principles of sliding mode control (SMC) with respect of vector control principles is carried out. The presented simulations comprise position quantization due to assumed experimental verification on the bench which consists of linear PMSM and incremental position sensor. Simulation results compare two methods for obtaining of position derivatives needed for SMC algorithm. The first method exploits a filtering observer and second one uses numerical derivations and first order filters.