An embodiment integrates non-PCI compliant devices with PCI compliant operating systems. A fabric system mimics the behavior of PCI. When non-PCI compliant devices do not know how to respond to PCI enumeration, embodiments provide a PCI enumeration reply and thus emulate a reply that would typically come from a PCI compliant device during emulation. Embodiments allow system designers to incorporate non-standard fabric structures with the benefit of still using robust and mature PCI infrastructure found in modern PCI compliant operating systems. More generally, embodiments allow an operating system compliant with a first standard (but not a second standard) to discover and communicate with a device that is non-compliant with the first standard (but possibly is compliant with the second standard). Other embodiments are described herein.