FWIW, the 2.6.36-rc3 kernel (modified only with some desktop responsiveness patches) shows a much lower rate of load balancing ticks. On my system 2.6.35.4 (unmodified) was showing 50-60 ticks per second, or 35-40 with the load balancing patches, while 2.6.36-rc3 is showing around 15-22.
FWIW, the 2.6.36-rc3 kernel (modified only with some desktop responsiveness patches) shows a much lower rate of load balancing ticks. On my system 2.6.35.4 (unmodified) was showing 50-60 ticks per second, or 35-40 with the load balancing patches, while 2.6.36-rc3 is showing around 15-22.