AN APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR GENERATING SIGNED BOUNDED POINTERS

An apparatus and method are provided for generating signed bounded pointers from general purpose specified data, for example data that may exist within a backing store such as a disk. The apparatus has processing circuitry that is responsive to a bounded pointer generation request to perform a generation operation to generate a bounded pointer from the specified data provided at least one generation condition is met. The bounded pointer comprises a pointer value and associated attributes, and the associated attributes include range information indicative of an allowable range of addresses when using the pointer value. The processing circuitry is further responsive to detection from the specified data that the bounded pointer to be generated is a signed bounded pointer incorporating a signature, to perform as part of the generation operation, at least in the presence of a signing condition being met, an insert signature operation during which the signature is determined from a portion of the specified data and incorporated within the generated bounded pointer. Thereafter, the generated bounded pointer is output for storage in a storage element of the apparatus.