A method of providing Java application layer access to hardware peripheral
memory mapped registers is provided together with a processor adapted to
implement such a method. A fixed memory address space for a hardware
peripheral's memory mapped registers is identified, and a Java object is
constructed having elements which occupy this fixed memory address space.
This allows a Java application to be provided with access to the hardware
peripheral's memory mapped registers directly through the Java object. A
new Java class is defined having base address and length parameters and
in some cases also having a type parameter. This is used in constructing
the Java object. When a Java object has an object descriptor which is
effectively an object header and a pointer to where the object data is
located, constructing the Java object may be done by creating an object
descriptor, and then creating an object handle for the Java object which
points to the object descriptor. Alternatively, a level of indirection
may be removed, and the object handle created to point directly to the
object created so as to exist in memory mapped register space.