  We show that semiconductor avalanche photodiodes can exhibit diminutive
amplification noise during the early evolution of avalanches. The noise is so
low that the number of locally excited charges that seed each avalanche can be
resolved. These findings constitute an important first step towards realization
of a solid-state noiseless amplifier. Moreover, we believe that the
experimental setup used, \textit{i.e.}, time-resolving locally excited
avalanches, will become a useful tool for optimizing the number resolution.
