Your first reaction is "sure, even an old Intel 80286 chip can easily do memory-safe C arrays". Because if your code runs in '286 protected mode, using a (yes, scarce) separate segment register for each array, and you don't botch loading the array's base, limit, etc. into the segment descriptors - yep, your regular array-access code (in assembly, C, or whatever) can enjoy memory-safety array access for "free".
Your first reaction is "sure, even an old Intel 80286 chip can easily do memory-safe C arrays". Because if your code runs in '286 protected mode, using a (yes, scarce) separate segment register for each array, and you don't botch loading the array's base, limit, etc. into the segment descriptors - yep, your regular array-access code (in assembly, C, or whatever) can enjoy memory-safety array access for "free".