Oracle 5.0 Reference Manual page 2546

As of PHP 5.3.2 MySQL Native Driver supports the compressed client server protocol. MySQL Native
Driver did not support this in 5.3.0 and 5.3.1. Extensions such as ext/mysql, ext/mysqli, that are
configured to use MySQL Native Driver, can also take advantage of this feature. Note that
does NOT support compression when used together with mysqlnd.
Named Pipes Support
Named pipes support for Windows was added in PHP version 5.4.0.
20.7.5.2. Installation
Copyright 1997-2012 the PHP Documentation Group. [2230]
Changelog
Table 20.57. Changelog
Version
5.3.0
5.4.0
5.5.0
Installation on Unix
The MySQL database extensions must be configured to use the MySQL Client Library. In order to use
the MySQL Native Driver, PHP needs to be built specifying that the MySQL database extensions are
compiled with MySQL Native Driver support. This is done through configuration options prior to building
the PHP source code.
For example, to build the MySQL extension,
Driver, the following command would be given:
./configure --with-mysql=mysqlnd \
--with-mysqli=mysqlnd \
--with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd \
[other options]
Installation on Windows
In the official PHP Windows distributions from 5.3 onwards, MySQL Native Driver is enabled by default,
so no additional configuration is required to use it. All MySQL database extensions will use MySQL
Native Driver in this case.
SHA-256 Authentication Plugin support
The MySQL Native Driver requires the OpenSSL functionality of PHP to be loaded and enabled to
connect to MySQL through accounts that use the MySQL SHA-256 Authentication Plugin. For example,
PHP could be configured using:
./configure --with-mysql=mysqlnd \
--with-mysqli=mysqlnd \
MySQL Native Driver (Mysqlnd)
Description
The MySQL Native Driver was added, with
support for all MySQL extensions (i.e., mysql,
mysqli and PDO_MYSQL). Passing in
to the appropriate configure switch enables this
support.
The MySQL Native Driver is now the default for
all MySQL extensions (i.e., mysql, mysqli and
PDO_MYSQL). Passing in
is now optional.
SHA-256 Authentication Plugin support was
added
mysqli
2526
and PDO MYSQL using the MySQL Native
PDO_MYSQL
mysqlnd
to configure
mysqlnd