Horsehockey!! It was never intended to replace the relatively ancient 8038 any more than a Corvette was expected to replace a VW Beetle. Only two things are the same about them: they're both function generators and they're both integrated circuits. They certainly aren't pin-for-pin compatible -- the MAX038 has 6 more pins than the 8038. Maxim made the MAX038, a pretty expensive little guy that did a maximum frequency of 20MHz while most other FG ICs (Intersil, Exar) topped out in the large vicinity of a megaHertz or less. In fact, it's surprising that the 038 is spec'd for about 0.1 Hz on the low end while the 8038 was more like 0.001 Hz. The Maxim chip had some pretty good sine wave specs for a FG while the 8038 was a pretty typical thing that did no better than maybe 2 or 3% THD.