<s>
XAM	B-General_Concept
,	O
or	O
the	O
eXtensible	O
Access	O
Method	O
,	O
is	O
a	O
storage	B-General_Concept
standard	O
developed	O
and	O
maintained	O
by	O
the	O
Storage	B-General_Concept
Networking	O
Industry	O
Association	O
(	O
SNIA	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
XAM	B-General_Concept
is	O
an	O
API	O
for	O
fixed	O
content	O
aware	O
storage	B-General_Concept
devices	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
XAM	B-General_Concept
replaces	O
the	O
various	O
proprietary	O
interfaces	O
that	O
have	O
been	O
used	O
for	O
this	O
purpose	O
in	O
the	O
past	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Content	O
generating	O
applications	O
now	O
have	O
a	O
standard	O
means	O
of	O
saving	O
and	O
finding	O
their	O
content	O
across	O
a	O
broad	O
array	O
of	O
storage	B-General_Concept
devices	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
XAM	B-General_Concept
is	O
similar	O
in	O
function	O
to	O
a	O
file	O
system	O
API	O
such	O
as	O
the	O
POSIX	O
file	O
and	O
directory	O
operations	O
,	O
in	O
that	O
it	O
allows	O
applications	O
to	O
store	O
and	O
retrieve	O
their	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
XAM	B-General_Concept
stores	O
application	O
data	O
in	O
XSet	O
objects	O
that	O
also	O
contain	O
metadata	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
standard	O
XAM	B-General_Concept
API	O
consists	O
of	O
all	O
of	O
the	O
three	O
primary	O
objects	O
and	O
two	O
secondary	O
objects	O
that	O
an	O
application	O
can	O
manipulate	O
to	O
store	O
and	O
retrieve	O
data	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
is	O
a	O
key	O
requirement	O
in	O
the	O
fixed	O
content	O
storage	B-General_Concept
market	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
XAM	B-General_Concept
also	O
has	O
the	O
notion	O
of	O
a	O
system	O
that	O
will	O
contain	O
the	O
XSets	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
abstracted	O
storage	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
is	O
called	O
an	O
XSystem	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Any	O
given	O
application	O
may	O
have	O
access	O
to	O
any	O
number	O
of	O
XSystem	O
storage	B-General_Concept
devices	O
,	O
so	O
there	O
is	O
a	O
need	O
to	O
create	O
XSystem	O
objects	O
for	O
each	O
system	O
we	O
need	O
to	O
access	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
XAM	B-General_Concept
Library	O
manages	O
all	O
the	O
connections	O
to	O
the	O
storage	B-General_Concept
devices	O
and	O
acts	O
as	O
a	O
factory	O
for	O
XSystem	O
objects	O
.	O
</s>
