$connection = {my db connection/object};

function PassedIn($connection) { ... }

function PassedByReference(&$connection) { ... }

function UsingGlobal() {
    global $connection;
    ...
}

class ResourceManager {
    private static $DB;
    private static $Config;

    public static function get($resource, $options = false) {
        if (property_exists('ResourceManager', $resource)) {
            if (empty(self::$$resource)) {
                self::_init_resource($resource, $options);
            }
            if (!empty(self::$$resource)) {
                return self::$$resource;
            }
        }
        return null;
    }

    private static function _init_resource($resource, $options = null) {
        if ($resource == 'DB') {
            $dsn = 'mysql:host=localhost';
            $username = 'my_username';
            $password = 'p4ssw0rd';
            try {
                self::$DB = new PDO($dsn, $username, $password);
            } catch (PDOException $e) {
                echo 'Connection failed: ' . $e->getMessage();
            }
        } elseif (class_exists($resource) && property_exists('ResourceManager', $resource)) {
            self::$$resource = new $resource($options);
        }
    }
}

function doDBThingy() {
    $db = ResourceManager::get('DB');
    if ($db) {
        $stmt = $db->prepare('SELECT * FROM `table`');
        etc...
    }
}

class MyClass {
  protected $_db;

  public function __construct($db)
  {
    $this->_db = $db;
  }

  public function doSomething()
  {
    $this->_db->query(...);
  }
}

class SomeClass {
    protected $dbc;

    public function __construct($db) {
        $this->dbc = $db;
    }

    public function getDB() {
        return $this->dbc;
    }

    function read_something() {
        $db = getDB();
        $db->query();
    }
}

function read_something() {
    $db = System::getDB();
    $db->query();
}

function usingFunc() {
  $connection = getConnection();
  ...
}

function getConnection() {
  static $connectionObject = null;
  if ($connectionObject == null) {
    $connectionObject = connectFoo("whatever","connection","method","you","choose");
  }
  return $connectionObject;
}