PHP 7.0 is being released and what the package provides.

[powr-twitter-feed label=”PHP 7.0 Released”]

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 7.0.0. This release marks the start of the new major PHP 7 series.

PHP 7 also comes with a new version of the Zend Engine, as well as several other improvements like:
• Improved performance: PHP 7 is up to twice as fast as PHP 5.6
• Significantly reduced memory usage
• Abstract Syntax Tree
• Consistent 64-bit support
• Improved Exception hierarchy
• Many fatal errors converted to Exceptions
• Secure random number generator
• Removed old and unsupported SAPIs and extensions
• The null coalescing operator (??)
• Return and Scalar Type Declarations
• Anonymous Classes
• Zero cost asserts

The release being introduced is an outcome of the almost two years of development. This does not mean various web hosting firms will rush to provide this version and most only offer PHP 4, and up to 5.3.