Not knowing where you got the .pat file, I have to say that pat files can mean many things.  for example some logic analyzers use the .pat extension for their capture files.  Many mainframe and PXI bus testers use .pat as the extension on digital files used to represent the 1's and 0's sent to a device undertest.  Some digital simulators use a .pat extension to show the 1's and 0's used for vhdl analysis.  Some of these .pat files are text, but many are saved as binary bit patterns due to the encoding required to represent the states of a digital pin:

"x" receive, but data invalid

"H" for the high or 1 state of a pin.

"L"  for the receive low or 0 state of a pin.

"1" for driving a 1 to the pin

        "Z" for the high z state, where the pin is essentially open.

"0" for the drive low or 0 to the pin.

Some tester capabilities have other codes which make the patterns very difficult to resolve.

Regards,

Les H.

On Thu, 2015-12-10 at 20:05 +0200, Angelo Moreschini wrote: