Our IAR linker scripts defines a RAM_region for all physical SRAM available. All readwrite objects are placed in this RAM_region. We don't explicitly define a HEAP and CSTACK region; however, we export symbols to be used for both the heap and stack at runtime. As a consequence, objects that are ".bss" and ".data" are placed in the HEAP and CSTACK. We should explicitly define a special region such that the application will fail to link if there is not sufficient memory. FreeRTOS linker scripts improperly define .heap output sections. Some KEEP { .heap } sections. In general, the FreeRTOS configs we ship with the project use heap_4.c. Therefore, the link scripts should do no HEAP allocation.