High system cpu (vs. user cpu)

One of our 9.2.0.6 databases running on RedHat 4.0 has been using a lot of 'system' cpu today.

12:48:22 PM CPU %user %nice %system %iowait %irq %soft %idle intr/s
12:48:24 PM all 47.07 0.00 47.69 0.00 0.25 3.00 2.00 6767.84
12:48:26 PM all 44.25 0.00 50.88 0.00 0.25 3.12 1.50 6765.17
12:48:28 PM all 45.58 0.00 49.94 0.00 0.50 2.74 1.25 7071.00
12:48:30 PM all 46.88 0.00 47.63 0.00 0.50 3.37 1.62 7268.66

All of our db's use MTS, but what's weird (and unique) about this one, is that it has 3000+ connections into it, and the dispatchers (not the servers as on other boxes) that are taking up the 'top' cpu utilization.

Usually that's an indication of a 'spinning' dispatcher to me (and usually I would find a session in waiting for 'virtual circuit status' that I'd have to kill to 'free up' the dispatcher).. but today something is just different.. can't figure it out.. the box is under higher load then usual, but not 3-4x (seeing 3-4x higher runq) anyone seen this? any clue?

Thanks,
andrey
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We run Oracle 9.2.0.6 on RH4 AMD
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