The SMBus module of EFM8 devices can support master, slave, and multi-master modes. When SMBus operating as a master, the SMBus clock source can be selected by SMBCS bit field, it can be Timer 0/1 Overflow or Timer 2 High/Low Byte Overflow.

The overflows from the selected clock source will determine both the bit rate and the absolute minimum SCL low and high times. The device will hold the SCL line low for 1 overflow period, and release it for 2 overflow periods. The THIGH is typically twice as large as TLOW, of course, the actual SCL output may vary due to other devices on the bus.

So the selected clock source should typically be configured to overflow at 3 times the desired bit rate, for example, if desire 100K SMBus bit rate, the overflow rate of the selected clock source should be 300KHz. The figure below illustrate how to generate the SCL by the timer source overflows.

For example, select the Timer 1 overflow as the SMBus clock source, configure the Timer 1 as 8-bit Counter/Timer with Auto-Reload (mode 2), and select the timer 1 clock source as system clock divided by 4.

The overflow rate of Timer 1 in 8-bit auto-reload mode is below.

If set the TH1 with 0xEC, the Ftimer1 will be around 300KHz with 24.5MHz system clock divided by 4.

The finial SMBus bit rate will be Ftimer/3, around 102Kbps.