The BOUND instruction ensures that a signed array index is within the limits specified by a block of memory consisting of an upper and a lower bound. Each bound uses one word when the operand-size attribute is 16-bits and a doubleword when the operand-size attribute is 32-bits. The first operand (a register) must be greater than or equal to the first bound in memory (lower bound), and less than or equal to the second bound in memory (upper bound) plus the number of bytes occupied for the operand size. If the register is not within bounds, an Interrupt 5 occurs; the return EIP points to the BOUND instruction.
The bounds limit data structure is usually placed just before the array itself, making the limits addressable via a constant offset from the beginning of the array.