diff --git a/jvm-packages/create_jni.py b/jvm-packages/create_jni.py
index 82e667889..4d627cb7c 100755
--- a/jvm-packages/create_jni.py
+++ b/jvm-packages/create_jni.py
@@ -119,3 +119,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
         cp(file, "xgboost4j-spark/src/test/resources")
     for file in glob.glob("../demo/data/agaricus.*"):
         cp(file, "xgboost4j-spark/src/test/resources")
+
+    maybe_makedirs("xgboost4j/src/test/resources")
+    for file in glob.glob("../demo/data/agaricus.*"):
+        cp(file, "xgboost4j/src/test/resources")
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/DMatrix.java b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/DMatrix.java
index 69647354c..47a280793 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/DMatrix.java
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/DMatrix.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ package ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 
 import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.LabeledPoint;
+import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.util.BigDenseMatrix;
 
 /**
  * DMatrix for xgboost.
@@ -130,6 +131,16 @@ public class DMatrix {
     handle = out[0];
   }
 
+  /**
+   * create DMatrix from a BigDenseMatrix
+   *
+   * @param matrix instance of BigDenseMatrix
+   * @throws XGBoostError native error
+   */
+  public DMatrix(BigDenseMatrix matrix) throws XGBoostError {
+    this(matrix, 0.0f);
+  }
+
   /**
    * create DMatrix from dense matrix
    * @param data data values
@@ -143,6 +154,18 @@ public class DMatrix {
     handle = out[0];
   }
 
+  /**
+   * create DMatrix from dense matrix
+   * @param matrix instance of BigDenseMatrix
+   * @param missing the specified value to represent the missing value
+   */
+  public DMatrix(BigDenseMatrix matrix, float missing) throws XGBoostError {
+    long[] out = new long[1];
+    XGBoostJNI.checkCall(XGBoostJNI.XGDMatrixCreateFromMatRef(matrix.address, matrix.nrow,
+        matrix.ncol, missing, out));
+    handle = out[0];
+  }
+
   /**
    * used for DMatrix slice
    */
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/XGBoostJNI.java b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/XGBoostJNI.java
index 53965e86d..4eee147e9 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/XGBoostJNI.java
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/XGBoostJNI.java
@@ -65,6 +65,9 @@ class XGBoostJNI {
   public final static native int XGDMatrixCreateFromMat(float[] data, int nrow, int ncol,
                                                         float missing, long[] out);
 
+  public final static native int XGDMatrixCreateFromMatRef(long dataRef, int nrow, int ncol,
+                                                           float missing, long[] out);
+
   public final static native int XGDMatrixSliceDMatrix(long handle, int[] idxset, long[] out);
 
   public final static native int XGDMatrixFree(long handle);
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/util/BigDenseMatrix.java b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/util/BigDenseMatrix.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9dbebb544
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/util/BigDenseMatrix.java
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+/*
+ Copyright (c) 2014 by Contributors
+
+ Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+ http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+ Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ limitations under the License.
+ */
+package ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.util;
+
+/**
+ * Off-heap implementation of a Dense Matrix, matrix size is only limited by the
+ * amount of the available memory and the matrix dimension cannot exceed
+ * Integer.MAX_VALUE (this is consistent with XGBoost API restrictions on maximum
+ * length of a response).
+ */
+public final class BigDenseMatrix {
+
+  private static final int FLOAT_BYTE_SIZE = 4;
+  public static final long MAX_MATRIX_SIZE = Long.MAX_VALUE / FLOAT_BYTE_SIZE;
+
+  public final int nrow;
+  public final int ncol;
+  public final long address;
+
+  public static void setDirect(long valAddress, float val) {
+    UtilUnsafe.UNSAFE.putFloat(valAddress, val);
+  }
+
+  public static float getDirect(long valAddress) {
+    return UtilUnsafe.UNSAFE.getFloat(valAddress);
+  }
+
+  public BigDenseMatrix(int nrow, int ncol) {
+    final long size = (long) nrow * ncol;
+    if (size > MAX_MATRIX_SIZE) {
+      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Matrix too large; matrix size cannot exceed " +
+          MAX_MATRIX_SIZE);
+    }
+    this.nrow = nrow;
+    this.ncol = ncol;
+    this.address = UtilUnsafe.UNSAFE.allocateMemory(size * FLOAT_BYTE_SIZE);
+  }
+
+  public final void set(long idx, float val) {
+    setDirect(address + idx * FLOAT_BYTE_SIZE, val);
+  }
+
+  public final void set(int i, int j, float val) {
+    set(index(i, j), val);
+  }
+
+  public final float get(long idx) {
+    return getDirect(address + idx * FLOAT_BYTE_SIZE);
+  }
+
+  public final float get(int i, int j) {
+    return get(index(i, j));
+  }
+
+  public final void dispose() {
+    UtilUnsafe.UNSAFE.freeMemory(address);
+  }
+
+  private long index(int i, int j) {
+    return (long) i * ncol + j;
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/util/UtilUnsafe.java b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/util/UtilUnsafe.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..501a9cfe1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/main/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/util/UtilUnsafe.java
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+/*
+ Copyright (c) 2014 by Contributors
+
+ Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+ http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+ Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ limitations under the License.
+ */
+package ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.util;
+
+import java.lang.reflect.Field;
+
+import sun.misc.Unsafe;
+
+/**
+ * Simple class to obtain access to the {@link Unsafe} object. Use responsibly :)
+ */
+public final class UtilUnsafe {
+
+  static Unsafe UNSAFE = getUnsafe();
+
+  private UtilUnsafe() {
+  } // dummy private constructor
+
+  private static Unsafe getUnsafe() {
+    // Not on bootclasspath
+    if (UtilUnsafe.class.getClassLoader() == null) {
+      return Unsafe.getUnsafe();
+    }
+    try {
+      final Field fld = Unsafe.class.getDeclaredField("theUnsafe");
+      fld.setAccessible(true);
+      return (Unsafe) fld.get(UtilUnsafe.class);
+    } catch (Exception e) {
+      throw new RuntimeException("Could not obtain access to sun.misc.Unsafe", e);
+    }
+  }
+
+}
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/native/xgboost4j.cpp b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/native/xgboost4j.cpp
index cf6bfbf4d..b6b9a8377 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/native/xgboost4j.cpp
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/native/xgboost4j.cpp
@@ -247,6 +247,21 @@ JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_ml_dmlc_xgboost4j_java_XGBoostJNI_XGDMatrixCreateFro
   return ret;
 }
 
+/*
+ * Class:     ml_dmlc_xgboost4j_java_XGBoostJNI
+ * Method:    XGDMatrixCreateFromMatRef
+ * Signature: (JIIF)J
+ */
+JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_ml_dmlc_xgboost4j_java_XGBoostJNI_XGDMatrixCreateFromMatRef
+  (JNIEnv *jenv, jclass jcls, jlong jdataRef, jint jnrow, jint jncol, jfloat jmiss, jlongArray jout) {
+  DMatrixHandle result;
+  bst_ulong nrow = (bst_ulong)jnrow;
+  bst_ulong ncol = (bst_ulong)jncol;
+  jint ret = (jint) XGDMatrixCreateFromMat((float const *)jdataRef, nrow, ncol, jmiss, &result);
+  setHandle(jenv, jout, result);
+  return ret;
+}
+
 
 /*
  * Class:     ml_dmlc_xgboost4j_java_XGBoostJNI
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/native/xgboost4j.h b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/native/xgboost4j.h
index eaefe3925..3d0f0c468 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/native/xgboost4j.h
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/native/xgboost4j.h
@@ -55,6 +55,14 @@ JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_ml_dmlc_xgboost4j_java_XGBoostJNI_XGDMatrixCreateFro
 JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_ml_dmlc_xgboost4j_java_XGBoostJNI_XGDMatrixCreateFromMat
   (JNIEnv *, jclass, jfloatArray, jint, jint, jfloat, jlongArray);
 
+/*
+ * Class:     ml_dmlc_xgboost4j_java_XGBoostJNI
+ * Method:    XGDMatrixCreateFromMatRef
+ * Signature: (JIIF[J)I
+ */
+JNIEXPORT jint JNICALL Java_ml_dmlc_xgboost4j_java_XGBoostJNI_XGDMatrixCreateFromMatRef
+  (JNIEnv *jenv, jclass jcls, jlong jdataRef, jint jnrow, jint jncol, jfloat jmiss, jlongArray jout);
+
 /*
  * Class:     ml_dmlc_xgboost4j_java_XGBoostJNI
  * Method:    XGDMatrixSliceDMatrix
diff --git a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/test/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/DMatrixTest.java b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/test/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/DMatrixTest.java
index b121bb887..75f52d877 100644
--- a/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/test/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/DMatrixTest.java
+++ b/jvm-packages/xgboost4j/src/test/java/ml/dmlc/xgboost4j/java/DMatrixTest.java
@@ -15,13 +15,20 @@
  */
 package ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java;
 
+import java.io.*;
 import java.util.Arrays;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Random;
 
 import junit.framework.TestCase;
+import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.java.util.BigDenseMatrix;
 import ml.dmlc.xgboost4j.LabeledPoint;
 import org.junit.Test;
 
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertArrayEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+
 /**
  * test cases for DMatrix
  *
@@ -53,7 +60,8 @@ public class DMatrixTest {
   @Test
   public void testCreateFromFile() throws XGBoostError {
     //create DMatrix from file
-    DMatrix dmat = new DMatrix("../../demo/data/agaricus.txt.test");
+    String filePath = writeResourceIntoTempFile("/agaricus.txt.test");
+    DMatrix dmat = new DMatrix(filePath);
     //get label
     float[] labels = dmat.getLabel();
     //check length
@@ -224,6 +232,122 @@ public class DMatrixTest {
     TestCase.assertTrue(dmat0.getLabel().length == 10);
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testCreateFromDenseMatrixRef() throws XGBoostError {
+    //create DMatrix from 10*5 dense matrix
+    final int nrow = 10;
+    final int ncol = 5;
+
+    DMatrix dmat0 = null;
+    BigDenseMatrix data0 = null;
+    try {
+      data0 = new BigDenseMatrix(nrow, ncol);
+      //put random nums
+      Random random = new Random();
+      for (int i = 0; i < nrow * ncol; i++) {
+        data0.set(i, random.nextFloat());
+      }
+
+      //create label
+      float[] label0 = new float[nrow];
+      for (int i = 0; i < nrow; i++) {
+        label0[i] = random.nextFloat();
+      }
+
+      dmat0 = new DMatrix(data0);
+      dmat0.setLabel(label0);
+
+      //check
+      TestCase.assertTrue(dmat0.rowNum() == 10);
+      TestCase.assertTrue(dmat0.getLabel().length == 10);
+    } finally {
+      if (dmat0 != null) {
+        dmat0.dispose();
+      } else if (data0 != null){
+        data0.dispose();
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testTrainWithDenseMatrixRef() throws XGBoostError {
+    Map<String, String> rabitEnv = new HashMap<>();
+    rabitEnv.put("DMLC_TASK_ID", "0");
+    Rabit.init(rabitEnv);
+    DMatrix trainMat = null;
+    BigDenseMatrix data0 = null;
+    try {
+      // trivial dataset with 3 rows and 2 columns
+      // (4,5) -> 1
+      // (3,1) -> 2
+      // (2,3) -> 3
+      float[][] data = new float[][]{
+              new float[]{4f, 5f},
+              new float[]{3f, 1f},
+              new float[]{2f, 3f}
+      };
+      data0 = new BigDenseMatrix(3, 2);
+      for (int i = 0; i < data0.nrow; i++)
+        for (int j = 0; j < data0.ncol; j++)
+          data0.set(i, j, data[i][j]);
+
+      trainMat = new DMatrix(data0);
+      trainMat.setLabel(new float[]{1f, 2f, 3f});
+
+      HashMap<String, Object> params = new HashMap<>();
+      params.put("eta", 1);
+      params.put("max_depth", 5);
+      params.put("silent", 1);
+      params.put("objective", "reg:linear");
+      params.put("seed", 123);
+
+      HashMap<String, DMatrix> watches = new HashMap<>();
+      watches.put("train", trainMat);
+
+      Booster booster = XGBoost.train(trainMat, params, 10, watches, null, null);
+
+      // check overfitting
+      // (4,5) -> 1
+      // (3,1) -> 2
+      // (2,3) -> 3
+      for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
+        float[][] preds = booster.predict(new DMatrix(data[i], 1, 2));
+        assertEquals(1, preds.length);
+        assertArrayEquals(new float[]{(float) (i + 1)}, preds[0], 1e-2f);
+      }
+    } finally {
+      if (trainMat != null)
+        trainMat.dispose();
+      else if (data0 != null) {
+        data0.dispose();
+      }
+      Rabit.shutdown();
+    }
+  }
+
+  private String writeResourceIntoTempFile(String resource) {
+    InputStream input = getClass().getResourceAsStream(resource);
+    if (input == null) {
+      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Resource " + resource + " does not exist.");
+    }
+    File tmp;
+    try {
+      tmp = File.createTempFile("junit", ".test");
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+      throw new RuntimeException("Unable to write to temp file.", e);
+    }
+    byte[] buff = new byte[1024];
+    try (FileOutputStream output = new FileOutputStream(tmp)) {
+      int n;
+      while ((n = input.read(buff)) > 0) {
+        output.write(buff, 0, n);
+      }
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+      throw new RuntimeException("Unable to write to temp file.", e);
+    }
+    return tmp.getAbsolutePath();
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void testSetAndGetGroup() throws XGBoostError {
     //create DMatrix from 10*5 dense matrix