ajk_:
Basically I'm not looking for a work around or a rapid hack or fix at this time.
I'm more concerned with the next release, and I would like to offer a hand/mind.
very good 
ajk_:
It is good to see that this bug is being actively discussed, but it is time to move forward.
Simply, let's think up a solution, agree on it, and fix the problem. If that means gutting the one from Glibc, I'm good with that, since it has issues anyway. What is the solution done in 1.0.3? Does that contain bugs in MM too? If it does, then that really explains the odd occasional lockup and random restart problems that I have seen.
1.0.3 does have the bug.
1.0.4 have a patched malloc.c in the Arduino core.
note that newer libc fixes MM, but introduces other bugs so you can't take it as a whole. It's all written in the discussions I linked on my previous post, please, don't let me repeat everything.
If you have a better solution, the right place to discuss it is here:
http://code.google.com/p/arduino/issues/detail?id=857
I'll be very happy to examine it and eventually merge it upstream. Thanks!