Difference Between HWIC-2FE and HWIC-4ESW

Cisco EtherSwitch 4- and 9-Port High-Speed WAN Interface Cards

Q. Can the individual ports be configured as routed ports?

A. No, the Cisco EtherSwitch HWICs do not support routed ports. This means you cannot assign an IP address directly to the interface and make it a Layer 3 interface.

Q. Can I assign each switch port to a unique VLAN? If so, are there any limitations? 
A. Each switch port can be assigned to its own VLAN, effectively providing four additional routed ports. However, there are serious performance and feature limitations to doing this. The VLAN interfaces are truly Layer 3 switching interfaces and are treated uniquely among interface types on the router. Many features are not supported or tested on these interfaces, including Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPOE) termination, Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol Version 3 (L2TPv3) termination, MAC address assignment, Layer 3 QoS, and others. You should carefully test any desired feature and solution prior to deploying it.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/routers/ps5853/prod_qas0900aecd8016c026_ps5854_Products_Q_and_A_Item.html

Cisco 1- and 2-port Fast Ethernet High-Speed

Q. Can these interfaces be used as switch ports?

A. No, these are native Layer 3 interfaces, designed for routing. They can be configured to bridge using the router CPU. There is no switching application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), nor are switching features supported.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/routers/ps5854/prod_qas0900aecd80582015.html

 Nguồn: http://networkcity.blogspot.com/2009/10/difference-between-hwic-2fe-and-hwic.html