Technique for constraining access to memory using capabilities

(canceled)

(canceled)

(canceled)

(canceled)

A method of constraining access to memory, comprising:

• employing processing circuitry to perform operations during which access requests to memory are generated, wherein the processing circuitry generates memory addresses for the access requests using capabilities that provide a pointer value and associated constraining information;
• and performing a capability generation operation in response to the processing circuitry executing a capability generating instruction that identifies a location in a literal pool of the memory, the capability generation operation comprising retrieving a literal value from the location in the literal pool, and producing a generated capability in which the pointer value of the generated capability is determined from the literal value, and the constraining information of the generated capability is selected from a limited set of options in dependence on information specified by the capability generating instruction.

A computer program for controlling a host data processing apparatus to provide an instruction execution environment, comprising:

• processing program logic to perform operations during which access requests to memory are generated, wherein the processing program logic is arranged to generate memory addresses for the access requests using capabilities that provide a pointer value and associated constraining information;
• and capability generation program logic, responsive to the processing program logic executing a capability generating instruction that identifies a location in a literal pool of the memory, to retrieve a literal value from the location in the literal pool, and to produce a generated capability in which the pointer value of the generated capability is determined from the literal value, and the constraining information of the generated capability is selected from a limited set of options in dependence on information specified by the capability generating instruction.