What are these processes?

[Michael Hipp]

Anyone have any idea what these "3" might be?


   PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
  8116 root      20   0  3180  740  636 R 33.2  0.0   1683:15 3
  8267 root      20   0  3180  740  636 R 33.2  0.0   1677:59 3
23476 root      20   0  3180  744  636 R 32.9  0.0 334:25.58 3
12887 michael   20   0  2416 1160  876 R  0.3  0.0   0:00.29 top

The system was running painfully slow. After I rebooted they do not seem 
to have reappeared.

Thanks,
Michael