A little late with this one but the SQL CAT team has a great blog post about partition lock escalation in SQL Server 2008. 

The post describes the introduction of table level lock escalation control made available via TSQL syntax.  In prior versions a trace flag was used to alter lock escalation.

A great feature added to an already great feature.  Enjoy!

The next SQLSaturday event for Atlanta will be held April 24th at the Microsoft office in Alpharetta.  SQLSaturday is one of the best content driven events going in the SQL community.  At the moment, there are 30 submitted sessions (2 are mine) by a wide range of people.

If you will be in town that weekend do yourself a favor and get registered for the event.  You will thank me later.