We consider spiking neural P systems with rules allowed to introduce zero, one,
or more spikes at the same time. The motivation comes both from constructing small
universal systems and from generating strings; previous results from these areas are briefly
recalled. Then, the computing power of the obtained systems is investigated, when considering
them as number generating and as language generating devices. In the first case, a
simpler proof of universality is obtained, while in the latter case we find characterizations of
finite and recursively enumerable languages (without using any squeezing mechanism, as it
was necessary in the case of standard rules). The relationships with regular languages are
also investigated.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2005-09345-C03-01Junta de Andalucía TIC-58