Just found a post detailing the release of the preview version of the MYSQLND support for PDO! For those of us who have grown fond of PDO during the last years and still uses MySQL, this is great news! The MYSQLND library is a reimplementation of the MySQL library, intended for native PHP usage instead of bridging it with the regular interface to libmysql. This brings a neat speed increase and overall goodness.
All hail MYSQLND! I’ll try to give the preview version a try over the weekend. You can read even more over at The PDO/MYSQLND Annoucement at lists.mysql.com or you can have a look at the installation procedure.