STEP UK Ltd. announced the beta programme of X2X the XML XLink engine. X2X allows for the creation, management and manipulation of links. X2X allows linking between documents and information resources without needing to change either of the source or target documents that are being linked. X2X removes the requirement to insert link information inside document content. The Links are NOT in the document. X2X has an extensible architecture to allow resources to reside in any data repository. X2X stores links independently of any documents and provides facilities to dynamically insert external link structures into documents on-demand. X2X stores all the link information within an ODBC/JDBC enabled database, e.g. Oracle or SQL Server. X2X is initially developed in Java for cross platform operation. X2X is implemented using fundamental linking concepts and understands links defined using the latest draft of the W3C XLink proposal. This scalable technology delivers the ability to associate different data resources regardless of their location. X2X allows for the retrieval of resources and can dynamically add the external link information without altering the original document/ information. The power of linking has been harnessed to allow structured information objects such as XML to be associated with information lacking structure. The architecture enables organizations to store data in the repository of their choice; while XLink adherence means that link information can be authored using a variety of applications. X2X works independently of the storage, authoring and delivery applications. X2X exposes its powerful functionality allowing it to be integrated into any static or dynamic application or service. With X2X it is possible to deliver richer information streams to users with little or no impact on existing data management procedures. The X2X technology preview is available for download at www.stepuk.com/x2x/x2x_dem.asp