如何将文件读取为二进制，十六进制或整数数据，以便在PHP中立即进行数据处理

I have stumbled across a really odd issue in PHP that I thought would have been solved a very long time ago but doesn't seem to be.

I am reading a file of a proprietary format, byte by byte using

$handle = fopen("myfile.bin", "rb");

while (!feof($handle) && $pointer < $bytesToRead){
    $c = fread($handle, 1);
    $pointer ++;

    if($c == 0xff){
        echo "Desired functionality";
    }
}

But the issue I have is that fread($handle, 1) produces data in string format even though it knows I am reading a single byte of data.

Can I read it into a variable as an integer immediately so I can perform logical operations like $c == 0xff or $c == 0b11111111?

I'm running into a ridiculous usage of memory because I have to convert each byte read into a char array, convert those chars into integers and then perform my bitwise operators which involve rotation in that format. Then for readable output I have to go back to strings and chars with other odd functions in PHP which were introduced in 5.4

It all seems very weird.