1st and 2nd gen - controllers that actually have random write performance that don't totally suck (except samsung)
2nd and 2.5 gen - TRIM, die shrink
2nd and 3rd gen - random read/write parity (read IOPS = write IOPS), the 100K IOPS barrier, the 1TB barrier, etc.
The 1$/G barrier will come naturally. I'm guessing when we get into 3rd gen. It is ... unlikely ... that we'll see small drives (e.g. 80G for =80$); most likely something like 256G for $250). This is simply because of fixed and variable (per/unit) production costs, controller licensing and costs, packaging, distribution, etc etc.
PS I get most of my info here: http://www.storagesearch.com/. They're more "corporate" than most benchmark sites out there.
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