Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, the second-largest disk drive maker, behind Seagate Technologies., is testing sample drives based on perpendicular recording and has claimed that the technology can allow for 1 TB desktop drives or 20GB Microdrives in 2007. Hitachi demonstrated the industry's highest data density at 230 gigabits per square inch (Gb/in2) on perpendicular recording. The company will later this year begin selling hard drives based on the yet-to-be commercialized recording method called perpendicular recording, this method arranges the north and south poles of the magnetic particles in a perpendicular fashion, unlike today's disks which use longitudinal recording. The perpendicular method packs more particles onto an area of the disk's surface, thus allowing for the greater recording capacity.