Interesting . I was involved with Unisa supercomputer (12 terraflops) few years ago. I was wondering what hardware do you need to do mining. Is there a formula like so many terraflops needed to mine 1 bitcoin? Time needed to mine etc. . And how much income you can generate.
I recommend reading some of the earlier posts in this thread or possibly some resources online relating to this first. There is already a lot of information about mining out there - no need for me to regurgitate it again.
Short version:
Different cryptocurrencies use different algorithms that can profitably be mined by different hardware. That is to say, it is possible to mine bitcoin with a CPU but you would not make a profit. To mine Bitcoin profitably, you need an ASIC (specialized hardware for mining bitcoin). Other currencies can be mined using GPUs, for example Ethereum and Zcash.
Formula for teraflops vs time required to mine one coin of a currency of your choice - no, no such thing. Because mining rate is measured in hashes per second not teraflops or gigaflops. Again, currencies differ in their mining rates - cannot compare the hash rate for Ethereum to the hashrate of bitcoin or ZCash.
Time needed to mine - depends on hashrate. Also, mine in pools to lower the risk. Pool mining - everyone pools resources and rewards.
Income - use whattomine.com