here is some good quick reading on the subject
Dynamic memory allocation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
It is very easy for applications or os's to distubute run time memory incorrectly thus causing the processor to work alittle harder, crash, or be opened up for exploitation and full chip access.
this is at the lowest levels of programming and is only manually programmed at that level for video games and devices probably like the rim......
programmers use complier's to chunk their code down to machine code....
there is your lesson....
in all that transformation and coding, something is always wrong and memory gets leaked.. causing the processor to suck up more juice.
somebody here with a computer science degree can help out even further.