I've studied bitcoin and litecoin for several months now. Both have wiki articles which take a while to understand what's going on. You create the coins by solving encryption puzzles. As more coins are mined, the puzzles get more complex. Bitcoin has been around for a while and are very difficult to mine.
Look at some of these bitcoin mining setups: https://www.google.com/search?q=bitcoin+mining+rigs&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=clANU7fzMILQsQTVuYEw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg&biw=854&bih=578
