Setting a wifi on a linux-based embedded board - don't see wlan0

I'm trying to set up a wifi on this linux-based embedded board which has a wifi module embedded on top of it.

I have configured hostapd.conf and wpa_supplicant.conf with specific SSID and password.

A couple of initial questions:

• When I run ifconfig, I see there's no wlan0. Is that an indication that the wifi driver isn't loaded?
• in order to use this wifi, is it merely a matter of running a hostapd file?