[From MySQL]
We are proud to announce the first alpha version of the MySQL native
driver for PHP: mysqlnd 5.0.0-alpha. The software is available for
download on http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/php-mysqlnd.
The MySQL native driver for PHP is an additional, alternative way to
connect from PHP 6 to the MySQL Server 4.1 or newer. It is a replacement
for libmysql, the MySQL Client Library. From now on you can use
ext/mysqli either together with libmysql as you did in the past or with
mysqlnd. The MySQL native driver for PHP requires PHP 6 and can connect
to MySQL Servers 4.1 or newer.
The article continues at
http://lists.mysql.com/announce/432