Probably the biggest difference between the 555 and the 8038 is that the 8038's capacitor is charged by a current source, while the 555's is not. So the 555 will not put out a real sawtooth, but may be close enough.

j.

 

If a "true" sawtooth is not that important, a simple uni-junction oscillator may also do.

 

Well, John, then I guess I have to get contentious.
According to this site, waveform A is a triangle wave, and the other two are sawtooths (sawteeth?). I gotta say they all look like triangles to me - maybe A shoulda been called an isosceles triangle wave. I can see why the other two are called sawtooth waves.