A global history vector (GHV) mechanism maintains a folded (XORed) GHV with higher order entries and an unfolded (no XORed) GHV with lower order entries. When a new entry arrives at the GHV, the GHV mechanism performs an XOR of the oldest unfolded entry in the unfolded GHV with the new entry. The XOR result is then shifted into the folded GHV as the newest folded entry. The oldest folded entry is discarded during the shift in of the newest folded entry. The GHV mechanism thus provides a resulting folded GHV that is current and can be utilized for XORing with an IFAR by performing an XOR operation. Only a single XOR logic is required to perform a single bit XOR operation between the oldest entry and the youngest entry, resulting in reducing the cycle time required to complete the folding (XORing) operation on a GHV.