Applied Biosystems has been the leader of sequencing technology for the past decade.  Its next generation sequencing instrument is SOLID, which stands for Supported Oligo Ligation Detection.  Its uniqueness, as shown from the name, is that it uses a ligation method to generate a sequence signal.
Similar to 454, the fragments of the DNA library are amplified by emulsion PCR.  After emPCR, the 3’ ends of the fragments are modified, so when the beads are deposited onto a glass slide, the modification can allow covalent binding between the fragments and the slide.  The slide is then put through a series of ligation process, as shown below.