svchost = service host. A generic process that Windows uses to handle certain processes within the operating system. You can in theory have as many svchosts running as are needed by Windows to handle all the processes requiring it.
http://www.liutilities.com/products/...brary/svchost/
As others have said though, be very careful what you type into Google when investigating these things as a slip of even one letter could be the difference between a nice happy windows system and a system you just knackered up by deleting a very much needed process