PHP 5.3 alpha1 With New Native MySQL Driver

The first alpha version of PHP 5.3 was made available for download by the PHP Development Team. It contains the latest version of the MySQL native driver for PHP (mysqlnd) and improved versions of the PHP MySQL extensions ext/mysql, ext/mysqli and PDO_MYSQL (working title: PDO_MYSQLND).

We ask you to try out the MySQL native driver for PHP: it is easier to compile as it's part of the PHP download package and can offer better performance and require less memory.

PHP 5.3alpha1 also contains the latest beta version of what was called PDO_MYSQLND before. PDO_MYSQLND is the working title of a project to add mysqlnd support to the PDO (PHP Data Objects) driver for MySQL (PDO_MYSQL). During the upgrade of PDO_MYSQL to optionally support mysqlnd, numerous bugs have been fixed.

You can download the version from: http://downloads.php.net/johannes/

For Windows users you will have to wait a little longer but will be able to download this version, as it becomes available from:

http://downloads.php.net/pierre/

More information can be found at:

MySQL native driver for PHP - http://forge.mysql.com/wiki/PHP_MYSQLND

PDO_MYSQLND project - http://forge.mysql.com/wiki/PHP_PDO_MYSQLND

PHP 5.3alpha1 - http://www.php.net/archive/2008.php#id2008-08-01-1