Originally all hard drives and other types of magnetic media recorded data using longitudinal recording, which stores magnetic bits horizontally across the surface of the media. Today, however, perpendicular recording, which aligns magnetic signals vertically on the media surface, is being incorporated in modern drives to achieve higher data densities. This process works because vertically oriented magnetic bits use less space than longitudinally stored bits (see Figure 8.14). Virtually all the major drive vendors are working with perpendicular recording as a way to achieve signal density surpassing that is achievable even with AFC pixie dust media.