A novel approach for generating multi-scroll chaotic attractor from a three-dimensional linear system is presented in this paper. (2N+1)×(2M+1)-grid scroll, (2N+1)-scroll and (2M+1)-scroll chaotic attractor can be formulated by an unstable three-dimensional linear system driven by two saturated function series. The new multi-scroll chaotic system is comprehensively analyzed based on its even and odd equilibrium points as well as its corresponding characteristic equations. A circuit implementation is introduced and the experimental result demonstrates that the multi-scroll chaotic attractor, with 7×7-grid scrolls and 9×9-grid scrolls, can be obtained in practical circuit.